You can't save them all can you?
by whisper99
Summary: Jack pushed her to remember and she did. What comes next? (Chapter 17 & 18 up) STORY COMPLETED!
1. Like a shot out of a cannon

**_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._**

**1800 hours at the SGC.**

Sergeant Harriman is at the control room running some routine diagnostics on the gate. Glancing quickly at the gate, he announces, "Unscheduled incoming traveler." Alarms blare as the gate lights up and the iris closes.

O'Neill quickly walks into the control room, stands behind the Sergeant and asks, "IDC signal?"

The sergeant nods, "Yes sir. It's from SG12."

The symbols on the gates appear to get brighter and the power conduits leading up to the gate start to spark.

"What the hell?" O'Neill says under his breath, frowning as he watches the gate, "Open the iris."

Harriman adds, "Sir, the Gate is drawing more power than it should be for this."

Moments after the iris opens, a figure shoots out from the center of the event horizon, landing with a thump at the foot of the ramp leading up to the gate. The gate disengages.

Muttering a curse under his breath, O'Neill runs downstairs, entering the embarkation room. Guards have approached the crumpled heap and seeing no movement, makes room for the medical technicians as they rush in to evaluate the member of SG12.

"Who is it?" O'Neill asks, trying to see. Carefully, the techs place a neck brace on the injured soldier, turning her over reveals the face of a young woman, with dark shoulder length hair. The lead tech glances over to the second tech, with a raised eyebrow. He looks up, saying, "I'm not sure who this is Sir."

O'Neill looks quickly at the unfamiliar face lying on the ground, frowning. He calls up to the control room, "Dial P2-X34 and find out what the hells happened to SG12." He gestures to the med-techs to continue providing aid, "Take her to one of the isolation rooms and let me know as soon as she's awake".

The gate has started the dialing sequence as O'Neill walks back up the stairs. Daniel and Sam arrive as he does, asking, "Who came in?"

"Damned if I know." O'Neill asks, watching as the seventh symbol locks and the gate engages.

Sam and Daniel exchange glances, as they each settle on either side of O'Neill. Daniel asks, "What do you mean?"

Harriman answers, "Well sir, we received the IDC from SG-12, but whoever it was that came through the gate, wasn't one of them."

O'Neill adds, "Flew...she actually, more like flew out of the gate. Damndest thing I ever saw. Landed hard, too."

Daniel winces sympathetically, knowing full well what that feels like.

Looking up from one of the workstations, Sam says, "Sir. The readings on the gate for the last activation are way off. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't normal."

"Ya think?" O'Neill asks, giving her a withering look.

'Contact with SG-12 is established sir." Harriman says.

Calling into the microphone, O'Neill says, "SG-12, report. What is your status?"

"We're still cataloging the items we found at the dig site sir. Everything's been real quite the last 12 hours."

"I want you all to check and make sure you've got your GDO's."

"Yes sir." After a brief moment, he adds, "Sir, all of them are accounted for."

O'Neill takes a moment before saying, "You are all to report back to base immediately." Nodding at Harriman, he says, "Have them checked out when they get here. I want to make sure nothing's happened to them."

Glancing up at Sam, he says, "Find anything useful that'll tell me then who that is in our infirmary and how she got her hands on a WORKING IDC from SG-12?"

Sam shakes her head, frowning as she looks over the computer results, "No sir. Not yet."

Daniel pipes up, half jokingly, "Maybe she's from an alternate reality?" and looks between Sam and Jack.

Jack raises his brow, tilting his head as if ready to start arguing, but instead says, "Good thought Daniel. Why don't you go down and see if you can't find out, hm?"

Daniel shrugs, saying over his shoulder, "S'not like that hasn't happened before."

Sam grins, looking over at Jack, 'He's right Sir."

**At the infirmary**

Daniel stands and watches from the observation area of the isolation room. Fraiser comes in, reading a chart, "Hi Janet. How's our patient?"

Janet looks up at him and smiles, "Hello Daniel. She's doing well for someone who took that kind of fall. I think she was unconscious before she hit, otherwise, her injuries might've been much greater."

Daniel nods, sitting down and offering Janet a chair, "What's the damage?"

"She's got a broken wrist, some cracked ribs along with a slight concussion."

Pushing his glasses up, he asks, "Has she regained consciousness?"

She shakes her head, "Not yet. I had her sedated so we could set her arm. She should wake up within the next hour or so."

Daniel nods, saying, "I'll be back then. Jack wants to know who she is. He's not too happy she had a working IDC." He gestures over to items set aside in the corner of the room, "Did she have anything else with her?"

Janet nods, saying, "Yes, I sent her clothing and backpack to be analyzed by the boys in the lab."

Daniel nods, "Ok, let me go see if they've found anything interesting." Heading over to level 17, he walks into the lab finding Sam along with another technician, discussing something.

"Hey." He calls out, waving, "Find anything?" The technician mumbles something about getting coffee and steps out of the room.

Sam chuckles and gestures with her hands at an assortment of items laid out on the desk. "This came from the backpack our 'visitor' was carrying. How is she?"

"Still unconscious. Dr. Fraiser says she'll be ok though. She has a broken wrist, cracked ribs, y'know, the usual." Daniels' eyes were immediately drawn to a leather-bound notebook sitting on the desk and said "That's funny. How'd that get there?" He said as he reached for it.

Sam looks at him, tilting her head slightly and says "What do you mean? That was inside the backpack."

Daniel looks slightly surprised, saying "Oh, weird. I thought this was my notebook. I keep all my research notes in one just like it. See..." and he opens the book. "You can take out or put in pages as needed." His eyes open slightly wider as he asks "Hey Sam, did you go through this book at all?' She shakes her head and he continues "Because I'm thinking this is my notebook after all. I was joking earlier, about her being from an alternate reality, but now I think I might be right. I'm guessing this probably belonged to some alternate reality Daniel Jackson." He shows her the inside where it is embossed with the initials D.J. "This was a gift from Catherine." Shaking his head again, "She must know us then."

"Who, Catherine?' Sam asks slightly confused. Daniel looks at her, smiling and says "No. Our 'visitor'."

Making a round 'oh' with her lips, she nods and looks at the rest of the contents. "I'm not sure this is standard issue." And she holds up what appears to be a very well used, small brown stuffed bear.

Daniel smiles, taking it in his hands and looking it over, "Cute." He sets it down and leafs through the book some more, saying "Well, whoever took these notes was very thorough."

Sam glances up, "Not your notes? I mean, the alternate you?"

He shakes his head, "Not my hand writing, so I'm guessing no." Peering at the rest of the contents of the pack, he asks, "Anything else interesting in there?'

Sam shakes her head, "Well, there are a few items I haven't been able to identify yet. The rest of it is just your basic kit – MRE's, pens, and pencils. A sketchbook." She points to each in turn. "The uniform looks authentic enough and of course a working GDO."

Daniel nods, glancing at his watch, "Fraiser said she might wake up by now. Want to come with?"

Sam nods, "Sure. Let's see if she can fill us in on where she's from. I'm very curious. The Gate took in twice as much power as it should have. Almost like it did back when we were shunted over to the gate in the Antarctic."

Daniel asks, "You think she came back through the gate itself from an alternate reality?'

Sam shrugs as they head to the elevator, "I don't know. From everything we do know about the gate, that sort of thing isn't really possible. But then, we also didn't think it was possible for it to get redirected but we've seen that happen twice already."

As Sam and Daniel approach the infirmary, they can hear shouting. Glancing at each other, they quicken their pace. Reaching the room Sam asks, "What's going on?"

The nurse shrugs, holding a tray in his hand, "The girl woke up and started demanding to know what happened to her and why she was in the infirmary." He shook his head, wearing a half grin, "Then, and get this, she started shouting for her dad. Making all sorts of threats about how he's going to have the Doc busted down to lieutenant so fast she won't know what hit her."

Sam doesn't get the chance to ask any more questions as Jack approaches them. "Hey Jack."

Not appearing pleased, he nods, saying to each in turn, "Daniel. Sam. Dr. Fraiser seems to think I'm needed in there at the moment. You two, stay put." And brushes past them, entering the room.

Janet is standing at a double arms distance from the young woman, both hands raised as she tries to make calming motions, "Now, Jess is it? You don't have to do this. We're only trying to help you."

"Get away from me! DAD!?" she calls out again, backing herself into the far wall of the room. "Dad!" she says, voice filled with relief as Jack enters the room, "Tell her to leave me alone!"

Jack looks behind him, then over to Janet mouthing the word, "Dad?". Janet half-smiles, shrugging her shoulders slightly, saying, "I don't know sir..."

Jess frowns, tilting her head slightly as she takes a better look at Jack, whispering "Daddy...?"

Jack clears his throat, saying, "Uh...the name is Jack. Jack O'Neill. And now young lady, you need to listen to the good doctor. We're not going to hurt you. You've had quite the fall a few hours ago; hit your head and all that...so this would be why everything might seem a bit...screwy from your point of view."

Jess lifts a hand to her mouth, eyes widening at the words she hears, 'I'm going to be sick." And she doubles over, retching.

Doctor Fraiser rushes to her side, helping her and says, "It's the concussion. You need to lay back down or you're just going to feel worse."

Nodding wearily, she lets the doctor lead her back to the bed. Jack gestures for the rest of SG1 to come in.

Dr. Fraiser gestures for a nurse to assist her with inserting the IV back in Jess' arm. Jess lays in the bed, looking decidedly pale and breathing a bit heavily, appearing to be fighting back nausea. She shifts over to her side, turning her back on Jack.

Daniel glances between Jack and the girl, as if trying to see a resemblance between them. Jack nudges him in the arm, saying, "Say something."

Daniel reaches up, touching a finger to his lower lip for a moment, then says, "Hi Jess. My name is Daniel Jackson. This is my friend Samantha Carter and you know Dr. Fraiser and uh, Jack. I think it's possible that you may already know us...at least, alternate versions of us." He offers Jess a half-smile, trying to look reassuring.

Jack gives Daniel one of his looks, raising both eyebrows at hearing his words. Noticing the frown Jess has on her face, O'Neill leans over, whispering, "I'm not buying that alternate reality thing either."

Daniel lifts his chin slightly, choosing to ignore Jack.

Sam chimes in, "We want you to know we're going to do everything we can to help you. There's no reason to be scared."

Jess turns her head to look at Sam, eyes wide despite the weariness in them, "I'm not scared...I just didn't know, that's all. This is all, very, very wrong." Wincing, she turns over, clearing her throat, "I don't know you, "as she gestures to Janet, "And you're Jolinar" looking back at Sam. She glances over to Jack, saying, "He's my dad...about 30lbs lighter than he was a week ago."

Her gaze settles on Daniel's face, but she avoids making direct eye contact, "And well, if the guy with the glasses back there is real, then he's doing a great impression of my dead uncle Daniel. So yeah, I'm not afraid...I'm just definitely not in Kansas anymore." Jess closes her eyes and lifts her good arm up, rubbing her forehead and grimacing, "I think I need some better drugs, my head is killing me. C'mon doc..can you hook me up?"

Several exchanges of surprised glances later, SG1 is left rather speechless. Dr. Fraiser regains her composure, saying, "Allright then. I think the best thing would be to let Jess get some sleep." She gestures to the nurse and says, "Nurse, you can administer that sedative now."

"That'll help you get to sleep, Jess."

She gestures for the rest of the team to leave the room and she follows along behind them.

"Wow!" bursts from Daniel's lips, breaking the silence.

"Jolinar?" Sam asks no one in particular.

"That was different." Jack says, patting his stomach as he looks down at his waist.

The team gathers around the observation window, looking down at Jess who is being treated by a nurse. Jack clears his throat, looking over at Janet asking, "Well...what do you think? She delusional?"

Janet runs a hand through her hair, saying, "Well sir, she certainly seemed confident in her demands when she woke up. And she did seem to recognize you immediately as her ah...father."

Daniel sits on the edge of a table, fiddling with some files, saying, "Well, I know how I seemed to the others back when I ended up in that alternate reality. They all thought I was crazy because I knew them but they didn't know me." Adding with a half smile, "As a matter of fact, if I recall correctly, you all thought I was crazy when I came back."

Chuckling softly, Jack places an arm on Daniel's shoulder saying, "Well, Uncle Daniel, we still think you're a bit crazy. We're just used to it by now."

Daniel looks up at Jack, offering him a tight smile, saying, "Oh sure." He stands, pulling off his jacket, "What're you going to tell Hammond about this when he gets back, 'Daddy'?"

Jack groans slightly, "Yeah...um...still thinking about that. Dr. Fraiser?"

Fraiser nods, saying, "I'm one step ahead of you, Colonel. I've already ordered DNA testing to confirm her claims."

Sam says, "I think we ought to talk to her in the morning, after she's gotten some rest. This can't be easy for her." They all head out of the infirmary.

**_To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!_**


	2. Waking up

_**Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.**_

**Next Morning**

0800 – Hammond has returned from his trip off world to the alpha site with Teal'c.

In the briefing room, SG1 fills them in on the new arrival.

Hammond calls the meeting to order, "Dr. Fraiser. How is the young lady doing?"

"Well sir, she should be fine and back on her feet in a day or two. She's still a bit groggy from the sedatives we gave her last night, but she's been able to talk. I've given her every test we have to check for outside influences, including being host to a Goa'uld and everything has checked out normal."

He nods, asking, "Any news on the DNA results?"

She nods, looking into the file, then taking a moment to look at Jack, before answering, "Well sir, the tests are fairly conclusive. There is a 99 chance that the Colonel is her biological father."

At the news, Jack frowns slightly, running both hands through his hair. Daniel and Sam exchange glances, but say nothing.

Teal'c tilts his head in Jack's direction, asking, "Perhaps she is but another clone, something created from samples of O'Neill's DNA?'

Janet nods briefly, "There is that possibility. She could have been genetically manipulated using the Colonels DNA samples along with another human so her genes match his, but not be identical to his."

Sam asks, "Like a test-tube baby?"

Janet nods an affirmative.

Jack makes a face, "That's more than I needed to hear."

Janet continues, "Well, if you look at the copy of the file in front of you, you'll find something a bit more interesting about our new patient.."

Daniel asks, "It says here her date of birth is June 14th...uh...2001?" he gives Janet a sidelong glance, peering at her over his glasses.

Jack asks, 'What...you saying she's 3 years old?"

Janet shakes her head, saying, "No sir." She continues for the rest of the team, "This morning I was trying to complete her medical file and asked her some routine questions. When she said 2001 for her birth year, I thought she was just confused. So I asked her what today's date was and she said fairly confident, 'August 20th 2017."

As Janet speaks, Jack counts intently on his fingers, "So you're saying she's 16 and from the future?" directing his question to Fraiser.

Janet nods, saying, "That's what it looks like."

Daniel asks, "Does she know what year it is for us?"

Janet shakes her head, answering, "No...I didn't bring it up and I don't think she noticed that there might be something wrong. I'd actually recommend not telling her what year we're in, until we find out more of what is going on. If what she is telling us is true, I think her predicament will be difficult enough for her to cope with."

Jack shakes his head, interrupting, "That just can't be right then. Why would they let a kid go off world like that? "

Daniel says, "Well if her father is someone who could just, aah...demote someone on a whim...maybe he wouldn't see anything wrong with letting her go off world."

Jack glances over at Daniel, giving him a 'that's just wrong' look.

Daniel shrugs, continuing, "Besides, if the notes I read on the journal we found in her pack really are hers, she does seem to know quite a bit about archeology."

Hammond asks, "Did she say anything else doctor?"

Janet shakes her head, "No sir. After answering just a few of my medical questions, she told me I was giving her a headache and that I should go away. And that was it." Janet closes the file in front of her. "She hasn't said a word since, to anyone."

Hammond shakes his head, taking a moment to collect his thoughts, "Ok people. I'm not exactly sure what to do here. What we know is that she is a potential security threat, so we need to treat her as such."

Daniel says, "But she's just a kid."

Teal'c says, "Children have been used as weapons against us in the past, Daniel Jackson."

Daniel nods, saying, "Yes, I know that Teal'c. But this just doesn't make sense. I really think she's here by accident. I mean, why go through all the trouble to make up something like this?"

Sam says, "Maybe she's a spy? I mean, she might not even know it herself. This entire thing could have been fabricated for us to trust her if we believed her arrival here is just an accident."

Hammond asks, "Major Carter, did you find anything on the readings you took from the gate when she arrived?"

"Well sir, aside from the gate increasing its power consumption to twice its normal amount, everything else was normal. However, there is good evidence to suggest that the gate behaved exactly like when the wormhole was redirected to the Stargate we found in the Antarctic."

Hammond asks, "So you think the wormhole she was in got shunted from her universe into ours?"

"Through time?" Teal'c adds.

"I'm not sure." Sam explains, "It's all theoretically possible. But everything, from sunspots to power surges...to who knows what else, would have to be timed to happen so, so perfectly, that I don't think something like that could just happen. I mean, it would be a one in billion...trillion chance of it ever occurring at all, let alone it happening naturally."

Hammond nods, saying, "Ok then. Major, you continue researching the feasibility of what we have just discussed." He looks over at Jack, who has been sitting quietly the during most of the meeting, "Jack, I want you to go and see if you can get the young lady to tell us more information about where she's from and how she thinks she got here."

"Me, sir?" he asks, "Isn't that more Daniel's...area of expertise?"

Hammond shakes his head, "No. I don't think that she'd be willing to open up to someone who she knows is dead in her world."

Daniel nods, agreeing as Jack asks, "Well, what about Teal'c?"

"I shall come with you O'Neill. I believe if you approach her with a firm hand, she will do as you ask."

"What makes you so sure?" Jack asks.

Teal'c explains, "She will perceive you as her father. No doubt she has great respect for his authority, as evidenced by her choice of words to Doctor Fraiser."

Jack nods, saying, "Allright, but that's only assuming she's telling us the truth.

Daniel adds, 'I'd say that's assuming she believes that to be the truth. Even if this is all some kind of plot, she may not know it."

Jack shrugs a bit, asking, "Doc, when can we go see her?"

Janet arranges the files in front of her, answering, "You can go now. She was awake when I came here."

"Allright people. You all know what to do. Dr. Jackson, if I may have a word?"

Daniel nods, remaining seated as Hammond continues, "I need to ask you what you think the situation developing at the alpha site."

The rest of the team departs, leaving Daniel and Hammond talking quietly.

**To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!**


	3. On my way home

**_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._**

**At the infirmary**

Jack comes into the room to find Jess pushing around the contents of her breakfast with her fork. "'Morning." He says mock-cheerfully as Teal'c comes in behind him.

Jess looks up, staring at Jack suspiciously, but does not say anything. Jack gestures for the nurse inside the room to leave. He pulls up a chair to sit next to Jess. Teal'c stands to one side of him.

Jess raises an eyebrow slightly, glancing over as the nurse leaves the room, then over to Teal'c. "Hi." She says quietly.

"How're you feeling?' Jack asks.

"Like I got run over by something kinda heavy." She pushes the tray away from her.

"Not hungry?" he asks, noticing the tray looks untouched.

She shakes her head, saying, "Not really." She fingers the cast on her left arm, wincing slightly as she extends the fingers on it.

"Well, my friends and I want to be able to help you, but in order to do that, we need to ask you some questions."

She shrugs slightly, leaning farther back into the bed saying, "What is it with you people and all your questions?"

"Well, we can't exactly help you if we don't know how you got here."

Jess seems to consider this for a moment, saying, "Ok...so you've got a point there."

Shifting uncomfortably on her bed, she adds, "But what I'm thinking is that maybe I hit the ramp a bit too hard with my head and this is all just a weird dream. Y'know, maybe I'm in a coma or something."

Jack purses his lips considering that for a moment before saying, "Ok...so you've got a point there."

Teal'c says, "This is not a dream, Jess O'Neill. We are in fact real and you are awake and talking to us."

Looking up at Teal'c, Jess offers him a small smile, saying, "Thanks Teal'c...you always did know how to make me feel better. I believe you."

Jack cocks his head, "You believe him?"

She nods, saying, "Yeah...Teal'c never, ever talks in my dreams. He just stands around looking...I dunno...dangerous, I guess."

O'Neill nods, agreeing, "Yeah...he does that in real life too, sometimes. Ok...well, Jess...ah...Jess...is that short for Jessie? Jessica?"

She shakes her head, answering, "Na...it's short for Jessmin."

"That's different." He says.

Jess shrugs, "Yeah...I guess it is. Mom picked it out."

O'Neill cocks a brow, asking, "Mom?"

Teal'c interrupts the conversation, "O'Neill, should we not instead be focusing on the task at hand?"

O'Neill nods, "Right...yes, sorry about that. Got a bit sidetracked. Um...ok, so, what happened?'

Jess frowns slightly, trying to stick her fingers inside the cast to scratch an itch as she says, "I'm a member of SG12. We were on P3X-398, doing a routine archeological survey of what looked to be an abandoned trinium mine that doubled as some sort of shelter for an as of yet unidentified race of beings." She gives Jack a side-long glance, asking, "Can you tell I rehearsed this?" He nods, and she continues, "We had seven days to get as much information as we could then we had to go home. And so seven uneventful days later, we headed back to the gate." She starts to try to dig her fingers into the cast.

O'Neill tells her, "Leave that alone."

"It itches." She complains, but moves her hand. She sits on her good hand to keep from scratching as she continues, "Anyway, I fell behind because I dropped my pack. The rest of the team went up ahead of me to the gate. I ran to catch up, but they had already gone through. Just when I got to the event horizon, the gate shut off." She looks at Jack closely, asking with a hint of hope in her voice, "They're not...here...are they?"

Jack asks, "Who? The rest of your team?" She nods her head even as he shakes his, answering, "No. Only you came in through the gate."

Jess starts to finger her sore ribs as she continues, 'So, I dialed the gate, and it wouldn't lock. I must've tried for an hour and I couldn't get the damn thing to work."

Jack and Teal'c exchange glances, Jack asking, "Did you try another gate address?"

Eyes downcast, Jess says quickly, "I um...well...no, actually...it ah...didn't occur to me."

Nodding, Jack says, "Do you remember seeing any kind of mirror device, maybe?" at that Jess shakes her head, and Jack continues, "Ok, so, how did you get the gate to work then?"

Answering a bit defensively, she says, "I dunno...I got tired of waiting so I tried again and it worked and I stepped through and whoosh, here I am."

Jack says, "Well, obviously something happened...wrong. Why do you think the gate didn't lock when you tried it the first time?"

"How the hell should I know?!" she answers exasperated, trying to sit up and failing miserably. "Ow, ow, ow." She says, holding her side.

"Hey, careful there. You don't need to go getting upset." Jack stands, trying to help Jess adjust a pillow so she can sit back down.

"I hate this." She mumbles under her breath.

"Yeah, I know kiddo." Jack says sympathetically. "I'll have the nurse come in and give you something for the pain, ok?

Lower lip pouting slightly, Jess looks up at Jack. Her eyes tearing, she says, '"You know, I've been gone what, one...two days now? This is going to kill my dad."

"Just hang in there, ok?" Jack says sympathetically as he reaches over to the stand to pull some tissues for her.

"All will be well, Jess O'Neill. We will find a way to return you to your father." Teal'c says reassuringly.

Wiping her nose, Jess nods. She settles into the bed as one of the nurses prepares a shot for her.

**Early afternoon**

Jess is sleeping soundly as Daniel enters the room. He puts a finger to his lips, making shushing motions at the nurse as she turns to watch him. He takes the small teddy bear they found in Jess' pack and places it in the crook of her arm. He smiles, looking down at the sleeping girl, reaching out to brush the hair from her eyes. He blinks, looking at her then glances about the room, as he hears soft crying in the distance. Shaking himself out of the thought, he leaves the room as quietly as he entered it.

**At the same time**

Jack approaches Sam in her lab, asking, "Carter."

Sam looks up, smiling as she says, "Colonel. How did the interview go?"

After Jack fills her in on the details Sam asks, "Do you believe her?"

Jack shrugs slightly, saying, "It's all soo...so boring. There isn't any reason not to believe her. I'd expect something much more elaborate from a Goa'uld. For crying out loud, all she wants is to go home." He clears his throat, changing the subject by asking, "What about you? Find anything scientifically noteworthy?"

Sam nods, looking tired but excited, "Yes sir...actually, I was about to call you and the others to see. Here is video footage of the gate when Jess arrived."

They can see the gate activating, power fluctuating through it and then can see Jess being launched out the other end. "See this?" she points to a graphical representation of the wormhole. "We use this to identify incoming matter through the wormhole. Normally, this is what it looks like." She outlines the flow of motion with her finger. "This graph shows something we haven't really seen before. The first one I just showed you was Jess coming through the gate. But this one...this one was a few seconds before she came through."

Jack asks, "What? You saying something came through the gate before she did?"

Sam nods, running a hand through her hair, "Yes sir. That's what it looks like."

Jack asks, "Well, what is it? A Re'tu?"

Sam shakes her head, "No sir, I don't think so. I'm still doing some tests on the video, to see if we can maybe pick something up. As a matter of fact, I was just about to run a full spectrum analysis on this video." She punches up some keys on the keyboard, and the screen shows the security video again of the gate opening just before Jess's arrival. The video is infrared mode. Sam remarks "Look at the sparks of energy coming off the gate. That's incredible."

Leaning closer to the screen, Jack asks, "Is that what I think it is?"

"Uh...yes sir. Wow...uh...I think we better have Daniel come and look at this." Sam says as she rewinds the video.

**_To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!_**


	4. Frustrations

**Late afternoon**

"Ok Jess, you can't leave the infirmary just yet." Fraiser says, trying unsuccessfully to get her to lie back down.

"Why not? I'm feeling a lot better now." Jess lied. "I've been thinking, y'know...I think that you all just need to let me get back to P3X-398, so I can figure out what went wrong." She sits up, tucking the bear underneath her pillow then turning to finger the IV in her arm.

Fraiser shakes her head, "Don't touch that. And no, you aren't feeling better. And young lady, if you don't' stop that this instant I will have them come tie you down to this bed." 

Jess snaps a look up at Fraiser, saying indignantly, "You wouldn't dare!"

Fraiser chuckles, although not amused as she checks the IV line. "Just try me."

Jess groans, frustrated, "Look...I really just need to get the hell out of here. You have no idea...this is just...' and she shakes her head, rubbing her eyes with her good hand. "Dammit! Who do I have to talk to around here to get someone to LISTEN to me??! I want to go HOME!"

Fraiser takes a deep breath, trying to hold her temper in check then answers, "Young lady, first off, you watch your language, or I'll have you muzzled. Secondly, I AM listening to you. And I will make your...requests...known to General Hammond as soon as we are done here. But I can assure you that you will NOT be leaving this room until I feel you are physically well enough to walk around on your own." Watching Jess for a moment, to make sure her words sink in, she adds, "Now, if you will sit up for me so I can check your side."

Jess' eyes narrow suspiciously as she watches the doctor go through her paces. She winces slightly as the doctor lightly checks her ribs, muttering the complaint, "Your hands are cold."

**A few minutes later, just outside the infirmary**

Janet steps outside, handing off a tray of blood samples to the nurse to have analyzed. She finds Daniel in the observation booth, chuckling slightly as he asks, "Muzzled?"

Janet laughs tiredly, "Well...I think she needed to hear that. She certainly does enjoy making demands, doesn't she?"

Daniel says, "It's interesting that when Jack and Teal'c met with her earlier this morning, they said she was very sweet – almost vulnerable." He chuckles again, adding, "Teal'c said she reminded him of Jack."

Janet picks up some papers and starts to file them as she says, "Well...she certainly has some of his more 'charming' bedside manners. I think though, that she's certainly used to get her own way."

The phone rings and Janet picks up, "Yes sir. He's right here. Allright, I'll tell him."

She looks up over at Daniel and says, "Hammond wants to see us in his briefing room."

**Briefing Room**

Janet and Daniel reach the briefing room where they find Hammond, Teal'c and O'Neill sitting down as Carter adjusts some settings on the video screen. "Hey guys." She says, nodding to them as they get there. "There's something here we thought Daniel should see."

Janet and Daniel sit, as Sam starts up the video, "This is footage of Jess' arrival two nights ago. You can see by this graph here the energy flows signaling an incoming traveler. If you look at this graph, you can see something came in just a few seconds ahead of her."

Teal'c asks, "Perhaps this is the rest of her SG12 team?"

Sam shakes her head, "Wait...now look at this. This is infrared version of the footage."

As they sit and watch, they can see an unmistakable form emerging from the wormhole event horizon. Long wispy tentacles surrounding an elongated body hovered for a moment, resting briefly upon Jess' body as she lands crumpled onto the ramp. Then just as quickly as it appears, it disappears through the left corridor.

The room is quiet as they all wait for Daniel to say something, but he just sits, staring at the screen even though the footage has stopped. Jack clears his throat, breaking the silence by saying, "Well Danny-boy...we figured that since you were the resident expert, y'know, having been ascended and all that, that maybe you could tell us what we just saw."

Daniel blinks several times, looking over at Jack as he tries to compose his thoughts. He gestures at the screen with his left hand, tapping the table with the fingers of his right hand, as he says, "Well...that looked like an ascended being."

Jack tilts his head slightly, giving Daniel the 'look' as he says, "Yes...we all gathered that, Daniel. Do you have any idea as to what an ascended Ancient would be doing ah...what appears to be hand delivering us our latest..." at a loss for words to describe it,

Sam pipes up, "Mystery?" at the same time Janet says, "Problem child?"

Daniel gets up, gesturing for Sam to replay the tape. He stands very close to the screen as he watches the footage again, "I wouldn't necessarily say she was 'hand delivered'" gesturing to the screen where Jess flies out of the gate and is flung halfway across the gateroom.

"Daniel..." Jack says by way of warning.

"I'm sorry Jack, but no. I have no idea what this is about." Tracing the outline of the ascended figure on the screen with one finger, he continues, "I...I...can still barely remember anything about the time I was ascended. I mean, there was that bit about Rya'c and Bra'tac having been captured but that's about it."

Teal'c adds, "Is it not against the 'rules' for an Ancient to take an active hand in interfering with someone. Perhaps it is a coincidence that its arrival coincided with that of Jess O'Neill."

Jack gives Teal'c a sour look saying, "Will you stop calling her that?"

Teal'c says, "That is her name."

Jack says, "I know that's her name but...oh, never mind." Fiddling with his pen, he starts to tap it on the inside of his palm.

Hammond says, "Gentlemen please. Let's try and stay focused here. Dr. Fraiser, when can she be released from the infirmary?"

Janet says, "Sir, if her blood work comes back normal, she can be released tomorrow morning. If I may add sir, that she is requesting...actually, more like demanding to be returned to P3X-398 in the attempt to get back home."

He nods saying, "I will take that into consideration. Thank you, doctor." She nods and stands, leaving the room. He looks at the team, continuing, "Ok then. We will call it a night and reconvene here at 0900 hours. Assuming of course our young guest can join us here. Otherwise, we'll meet at the infirmary." He gives Jack a meaningful glance, as he continues, "I for one do not relish the idea of having a Jack O'Neill anywhere in the universe with a missing daughter. However, decisions need to be made people and we don't have a lot of time to do it in."

He stands up and leaves the room, leaving Daniel looking after him. He glances at the others that are still sitting. After a moment he asks, "What decisions is he talking about?"

Teal'c answers, "Hammond is being pressured to turn over Jess O'Neill for further...questioning."

Daniel looks incredulously at Teal'c, asking, "What? Why? You heard Janet; she just wants to go home. You don't all believe she's a Goa'uld spy, do you?"

Sam says, "No...but...well, it looks like certain people in the government feel that if she is from the future, she may be able to provide valuable intel for us."

Daniel scoffs at that, saying, "She's from an alternate reality. How good could her knowledge be to us?"

Teal'c responds with, "It was information you gathered during your time in an alternate reality that once saved your world from a Goa'uld invasion, Daniel Jackson."

Daniel works his jaw for a moment, realizing the truth in that statement. After a moment's hesitation, he says strongly, "We can't just...give her over! Jack, she's your dau...".

Raising a hand, Jack cuts off Daniel in mid-sentence, "Ah-ah-ah, Daniel. She's not my anything."

Daniel scowls, retorting, "Fine, but she's still only 16. That should count for something."

Sam hesitates a moment before speaking, "Daniel...her own father let her go off-world on a mission with an SG team. She can't be...that helpless."

Teal'c says, "It is hard to believe that any O'Neill would send a child of his off-world without the understanding that something unforeseen could happen. Likewise, it should be expected that she be equally prepared for such an occurrence."

Jack stands, looking at each of his team members, "Right. So, tomorrow we lay it out for her in the morning. Tell her everything and we'll see what happens from there."

"Jack!" Daniel protests as Jack leaves the room.

"That's enough Daniel. We'll talk again in the morning."

Sam offers Daniel an apologetic smile before following Jack out. Teal'c remains, looking at Daniel and asks, "You have of late seemed troubled, Daniel Jackson. Is there something I can do to help you?"

Daniel chews on his lower lip for a moment before saying very quietly, "I'm hearing...this is going to sound crazy, but ever since she got here, just when I'm not thinking of anything in particular, I hear a little girl crying. The sound is always in the distance and it feels like if I just look around the next corner, I'll be able to find her."

Teal'c cocks an eyebrow, "Could it be another memory from the time you were ascended?"

Daniel shrugs slightly, "It could be..." he removes his glasses for a moment and pinches the bridge of his nose, "It's all just It's hard for me to tell if it's a real memory or just some kind of weird waking dream." Squinting slightly, he looks at Teal'c with tired eyes.

Teal'c nods, standing, "Perhaps then it is time for us to Kel'no'reem once again." Sighing, Daniel nods saying, "I'll meet you in your room tonight." as he follows Teal'c out.


	5. More Questions

**_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._**

**Late Evening**

Daniel helps Teal'c set out, then light the dozens of candles that surround them both inside room. He takes off his jacket and settles cross-legged in front of Teal'c.

Offering him a bit of a self- conscious smile, Daniel closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He finds himself dreaming, though strangely aware of his surroundings, almost able to sense the energy of the flickering candles around him. He is in a quiet place, listening to the teachings of Oma Desala. He hears her voice though he cannot see her, as she tells him "You cannot save them all, Daniel."

He turns around to look for her, but is startled when he hears a child crying in the distance. "Hello?" he calls out, trying to find where the sound is coming from. A moment seems to pass and he is standing in a room. Nothing in it is notable except for a skinny little girl, dressed in pajamas, who is sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth in a corner of the room.

Watching her for a long moment, Daniel finally approaches her, kneeling in front of her and asks gently, "Hello...are you ok?"

The child does not appear to hear him and continues rocking. Confused, Daniel straightens, calling out, "Oma? Why am I here? Who is this?"

Daniel feels Oma's presence next to him, although he does not see her. He feels her say, "She calls."

Daniel turns once again to look down at the girl, "I don't understand. What do you mean?"

Oma simply repeats, "She calls." And she appears next to the girl, reaching out and almost, but not quite, touching her head.

Daniel stands again, looking down at the girl, confused because he can still hear someone crying, but it's not the girl in front of him. She continues to rock herself but makes no sign of seeing anyone, her face devoid of any expression. A nurse comes in, checking on the girl saying, "Now, now, Doctor's going to want to see you soon. We need to make sure you're all nice and clean." The nurse lifts her up and carries her to the bed, checking to make sure she hasn't soiled herself. All the while, the girl pays as much attention to the nurse as she did to Daniel and Oma. When the nurse leaves, the girl manages to sit up on the bed and begins to rock herself once again.

Concerned for the girl, Daniel walks over to the bed and copies Oma's gesture, reaching out his hand towards the girl, asking, "Is she the one I hear crying?"

Oma stretches her hand out, blocking Daniels. "It is not for us to interfere, Daniel. This is the first and hardest lesson for any of us to learn."

"She's just a child...", and with that, he reaches out, lightly touching his fingertips against the girls forehead, brushing away the hair falling in her eyes. With that moment of contact, the girls eyes flicker up, and lock on Daniel's blue eyes. She cocks her head to one side, no longer rocking. Her face, no longer expressionless breaks into a happy smile, in her eyes a spark of recognition as they light up, "Uncle Daniel?" she whispers.

Daniel smiles, shaking his head as he realizes the girl can now see him. "My name is Daniel. But I'm not your uncle."

Still smiling, with a somewhat far away look in her eyes, she says, "You came back. I've been waiting." And she reaches out a hand and touches his cheek.

A bit startled, he nonetheless reaches out, taking her small hand in his and she squeezes his hand tightly, as if seeking reassurance. Seemingly mesmerized by the touch, he does not notice when Oma's presence leaves the room. "What's your name?" he asks the girl. She smiles, delighted and answers him with, "You're so silly!"

In the distance, he can hear someone calling out, "Daniel Jackson. Can you not hear me?", an insistent voice continues to call his name, even as he feels himself being shaken. "Wha..?" he blinks, appearing disoriented as he looks around the room. Looking up, he sees Teal'c kneeling beside him, with both hands on his shoulders, "Daniel Jackson, are you awake now?"

Daniel nods slowly, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes for a moment, "Yeah...what? What is it?"

Teal'c sits back on his legs, saying, "You have been deep into Kel'no'reem for several hours. It is in fact, almost 3am."

Daniel looks up, appearing startled at that, "I have not..." he shifts, trying to stand and groans slightly, "oh...yes...I guess I have. Why didn't you wake me?"

Teal'c stands, offering Daniel a hand to help him up, "When I finished with my meditation, I saw that you were still deep into Kel'no'reem and I thought it best to leave you. I could not know you would remain so for so many hours."

Daniel stands, rubbing his legs with both hands and stomping a bit, trying to get his circulation going, "Aaah...pins and needles."

"Did you discover something during that time?" Teal'c asks, offering Daniel a bottle of water.

"Uh...oh...uh..." he stands, stretching himself with a yawn, "Ah...I think so. Though I'm not sure what it all means." Running both hands through his hair, he scrubs his head, making a mess of his hair but hoping it will waken him further. "The little girl I heard crying...that was Jess. I'm almost sure of it." He gestures with his hands, palm side down, saying, "She was little though...hair was longer and in pig tails."

"How can you know her, if she is indeed from an alternate reality?"

He answers, sitting down to rub his left foot, grimacing as the pins and needles feeling starts to strengthen, "I don't know...I just know that I do. It was a memory, but it's not as focused. I didn't feel...I dunno, frustrated, I guess is the word, like when I remembered about Rya'c and Bra'tac. It all seemed so...new."

"Perhaps this is a memory from when you first ascended."

"You mean before I found out there were strings attached to all that great power and knowledge?"

Teal'c nods, "Perhaps."

"Ok...so what does it mean?" Taking a long drink from the bottle, he looks up over at Teal'c who is carefully blowing out the candles that remain lit.

"Perhaps it is no accident that Jess O'Neill has found her way here, however unlikely the scenarios we have discussed are."

Daniel says slowly, "Ok...if that's true, then why is she here?"

Teal'c tilts his head, giving Daniel a close look before answering, "Perhaps you would be the best one to answer that."

Blinking his eyes a few times, he looks up at Teal'c, shaking his head, "I...I have no idea what to say to that. Yes...I somehow have this memory of knowing her, but...how does any of that mean I know why she's here?"

"If you sleep, perhaps it will come to you. There are a few hours yet until the morning."

Daniel nods, asking, "Mind if I just crash here?"

Teal'c pulls a blanket from a drawer, tossing it and a pillow to Daniel. "If the floor will do, there is a mat behind you that should make it more comfortable." Daniel nods a thank you.

"Goodnight, Daniel Jackson. I hope that you remember more in the morning." Teal'c steps out from behind a partition, wearing only briefs as he gets ready to lie down in his bed.

"G'night Teal'c. Me too." Daniel sets out the mat, pulling off his pants as he covers himself in the blanket, laying down and putting his head on the pillow.

**Morning**

Jess nods at Fraiser, looking at the pill bottle she's given, "Right. One every four hours as needed." She hops off the bed, biting back a groan as the light impact jars her sore body. She takes a deep breath, smiling around the pain as she asks, "Ok then...where to?"

Fraiser points to the guard standing by the door and says, "Lt. Marshal will take you to the briefing room where you'll meet with General Hammond and the rest of SG1."

Adjusting the front of a blue jumpsuit, she reaches for a hat that's lying on top of the bed and pulls it on her head. Whistling a bit cheerfully, she walks out of the door, escorted by the Lt. and two other guards.

As Jess is escorted out of the infirmary, Janet reaches for the phone and places a call, "Yes sir. She's on her way now. Should be there within 5 minutes."

**In the Briefing Room**

Sam is reviewing some files in front of her. Jack is quietly talking to Hammond in one corner of the room. Teal'c watches as Daniel pours himself his fifth cup of coffee this morning.

There is a knock on the door and Lt. Marshal steps inside. "Sir. Here is Ms. O'Neill."

Hammond nods, gesturing as he says, "Come in." To the guards he says, "You can all wait outside." The guard nods, then steps aside, letting Jess walk in.

Tugging on the front of her hat, she looks around the room quickly, taking in who is there and says, "'Mornin."

Hammond pulls out a chair for Jess and says, "If you wouldn't mind taking a seat, we can get this started."

Jess nods, sitting down and soon starts to tap the fingers of her good hand on the table. Before Hammond begins to speak, Jess says quickly, "Um...now, don't take this the wrong way or anything. I really appreciate the help you've given me, y'know...I guess you didn't have to. Could' a chucked me back through the gate back the way I came. But anyway, just wanted to let you know that you can feel free to chuck me back out through the gate, right to P3X-398, anytime now." She finishes quickly before anyone can get a word in.

Jack answers by way of saying, "We don't make it a habit to not help people who show up at our doorstep, mostly broken."

Jess looks over at Jack, thinking what he said over. Hammond shakes his head, and tries to take control of the meeting, "Be that as it may, there are still some things that you need to know, Ms. O'Neill."

"Jess...call me Jess. And do please let me know what is so freaking important that you need to tell me before you let me try to get home." She swallows, frowning slightly as if trying to keep her temper under control.

"Young lady, you need to watch that tone." Hammond stares down at Jess until she mumbles an apology. He nods and gestures to Carter.

Sam stands up, glancing over to Jack, then back over to Jess before saying, "Jess...see...we don't actually know that there is any way to get you back home."

Jess shakes her head, starting to argue but Sam continues. "The gate sent you here from an alternate reality. We can't even begin to guess how it could have done that...but we do have a clue, maybe."

Jess gives Sam a bored look as she continues, "We want to show you some footage of your arrival through the gate. There is definitely something you need to see, that you may be able to help us explain."

As Sam presses play on the video, Jess rolls her eyes, muttering, "You have GOT to be kidding me." Sighing, she sits back and watches the tape, "What the hell is that thing?" Jess asks, when she sees the ascended being coming through the gate. "It's creepy looking."

Jack asks, "You don't...recognize that at all?"

Jess shakes her head, pulling off her hat and running her good hand through her hair. She fingers the knot at the back of her head, wincing slightly. She reaches in front of her for a glass. Teal'c leans forward, pouring her some water. "Looks like an octopus or something." She says as she pulls a pill bottle from her front right shirt pocket, fiddling with the top. Giving Teal'c a sidelong glance, she rolls the bottle towards him. He opens it for her and slides it back over. She quickly takes two of the pills.

Daniel says, "We have reason to believe that is an ascended being...an Ancient most likely."

Jess nearly chokes on her water at that. Wiping her chin, she asks, "An Ancient?"

Daniel nods but before he can continue, Jess interrupts him, "So what? Who cares? So a creepy-crawly decided to hitch a ride. Big deal. Can you all just dial the gate and let me go now?"

Jack has been watching Jess very closely the entire time and he finally says, "Y'know kid...you need to stop acting the brat and listen to what we're telling you." Sam shoots him an alarmed glance, but Jack ignores her and continues, watching Jess' reactions carefully. "You are 10 years in the past, Jess. Right now, the year is 2004."

Jess sits back in her chair, looking up at Jack with the same colored eyes, lifting her chin defiantly, she says, "So...what, you expect me to start blubbering or something? Ooh..lost in time with a bunch of losers. I am GENERAL Jack O'Neill's daughter, in case you have forgotten, Colonel and I know my rights. You can't keep me here."

Daniel breaks in, saying, "Ok...now is not the time to start those tempers flaring. That's not going to get us anywhere."

Ignoring Daniel, Jess continues to try and stare down Jack as she says harshly, "I am here because of some freak accident. I don't believe you that I'm 10 years back in time...between my reality and yours – what kind of crock is that?" she shrugs, "No, no...our...our time zones must be different somehow or something. Anyway, the Stargate doesn't go through time. It can't do that."

Sam chimes, "Sure it can...we've been back through time, even forward through time using the gate. And with an Ancient being involved...well...anything is possible. Maybe he...she...wanted you to be here."

Jess stares at Sam for a long moment as the words seem to sink in; she stands slowly, walking over to the glass window overlooking the embarkation room. She fingers her cast, taking a few deep breaths, and asks firmly, "Why? What would this...Ancient...thing bring me here for?"

Having been quiet for most of the meeting, Teal'c prompts, "I believe Daniel Jackson may know the answer."

Daniel shoots him an alarmed look, eyes widening. He swallows as the rest of the team look expectantly at him. "Dr. Jackson...do you have some new information for us?" Hammond asks.

Daniel shrugs slightly, then nods, saying, "Well...ah...I had a dream last night. I think I remembered something....from the time I was ascended. Jess?"

She continues looking down at the Stargate as Daniel gets up and walks over to her. He stands just slightly behind her and to the left, "Um...where you ever in a hospital when you were a little girl?"

Jess works her jaw slightly, frowning as she answers, "Maybe..."

Daniel continues, "It was about a year or so ago for me...but...I remember being there. I was with you." He gently places a hand on her shoulder; he says softly, "I can't explain it really, but I think I heard you crying."

Jess turns around slowly, facing Daniel, looking up she locks gazes with him. In a heartbeat, she cocks her right shoulder, making a fist despite the cast on her arm and lays a punch on the unsuspecting Dr. Jackson. Sam and Teal'c get rush up to help Daniel who crashes backwards landing on the floor. Jess doesn't move from where she stands, rubbing her arm. Jumping up, Jack makes a grab for her. Breathing heavily, Jess doesn't resist, saying in a tight voice, "You get him the hell away from me."

Upon hearing the commotion, the guards quickly enter the room. Jack orders them away, saying, "I got it...it's all under control."

Hammond asks quickly, "Dr. Jackson? Are you all right?'

Daniel nods, holding his head as Sam tries to stem the flow of blood from a cut above his right eye. "Sir, I think he's going to need stitches for this." Hammond nods and says, "You two escort Dr. Jackson to the infirmary. Jack and I will finish our meeting with Ms. O'Neill here."

After the other members of SG1 leave the room, Jack steers Jess into a chair, and he sits next to her.

Hammond says, "Young lady, what the hell was that all about? Do you have any idea of what kind of trouble you are in at the moment?' he demands of Jess.

Jess says quietly, with most of the emotion gone from her voice, "It can't get any worse sir...besides, he was out of line."

"Listen up kiddo. This isn't a game. You can't just attack people." Jack says with a warning note in his voice. Jack stares into her face, locking gazes and sees confusion mingled with a hint of panic reflected in her eyes.

She looks away, and Jack can see her façade of strength start to crack as she says, "I...I'm sorry about that...I...he...he shouldn't have touched me..." She takes a deep breath, fighting back tears as she says, "Jack...I already told you once before...I don't know how you can be who you are and not understand it." Her voice cracks, "This is going to kill my father. I HAVE to go back." She stares down at her hands rubbing the fingers on her bad arm.

Taking a deep sigh, Jack says softly, "Jess...we were hoping to tell you this a bit more diplomatically, but things obviously got a little out of hand..." Jack looks at Hammond for support. Receiving a nod, Jack takes a breath and continues, "We can't establish a lock to the gate symbols you gave us to P3X-398. There isn't any 'going back' there."

Jess shakes her head, still staring in front of her, "No, you must be dialing it wrong."

Jack shows her a piece of paper with the gate address written on it, "Is that the address?"

She nods, saying, 'Maybe your addresses are different than mine."

Jack thinks this over a minute, before saying, "Maybe...what's Earth's gate address?"

Jess looks up at him for a moment, tears sliding down her face. She shakes her head, sniffling saying, "No sir...I can't tell you that. But...how about this instead? P3C-117" she jots down the gate symbols best she can manage with her left hand.

Jack tilts his head, looking sideways at what she's writing, "The Nox homeworld." He looks up at Hammond, who says, "Get that confirmed." It takes a few moments for Jack to hand the paper to one of the guards outside and give him instructions. They sit waiting silently while Jess wipes the tears from her face. A few minutes pass, the guard comes in and whispers something to Jack.

"It's a match, Jess. Your gate symbols and ours do match."

Taking a deep breath, she admits in a soft voice, "Y'know...I'm an assistant to SG12's chief linguist, Josh Morrow. He got sick last 't make it to the mission. They would've rescheduled but I begged my dad to let me go instead. I told him it would be an easy mission." She laughs softly, wiping her eyes, "He never lets me go off world without him, but this once, he did." She shakes her head, saying, "This wasn't supposed to happen."

O'Neill watches Jess closely, putting a hand on her good one, giving it a squeeze. She looks at him, eyes wide, she whispers, "I...I don't know what to do..."

Her eyes start to look glazed over and Jack calls out her name, "Jess? Hey, don't go passing out on us. You aren't alone, y'know. We're all going to do everything we can to help you."

Her head lolls to one side, but she shakes herself out of it. Appearing to come back to her senses, she asks, "Where's Daniel? I think I need to talk to him now."

Hammond says, "Colonel...before we let her out of here, she needs to be restrained and under constant guard."

Jack looks up at Hammond, asking, "Is that really necessary??"

Hammond answers, "Do I need to remind you just who is in the infirmary at the moment because of our young guest here?"

"Ah...well, true." He stands, taking hold of Jess' arm and pulls her up. "I'll see to it, sir."

"See that you do." As he stands and makes his way back to his office.

Jack says quietly to Jess, "Are you normally this much trouble to your father?'

She sniffles and offers him a soft smile, "I like to think so."

Jack calls out to the guard and they manage to secure Jess' hands behind her back. She's escorted to guest quarters. She is insistent the entire way that she really needs to see Daniel.

_**To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!**_


	6. Some Answers

**_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._**

**Later**

Daniel enters the room, finding Jess sitting on her bed, eyes half-lidded. She lifts her head on hearing someone enter the room and smiles apologetically when she sees who it is.

"I'm really sorry about that." She gestures to her own eye, as Daniel fingers the tape holding the cut together above his left brow.

"Ah...ok,,,thanks. Would you care to explain why you hit me?"

He moves to starts to sit at the foot of the bed, but she shakes her head, pulling her legs up close to her body, saying, "You scared me. Um...It'd be better if you sat there." And she points to a chair close to the door.

"Oook..." and he moves to sit where she pointed. "So...you wanted to see me?"

Jess nods slowly, not looking at him as she fingers her cast. "Yeah...I...I'm going to tell you some stuff I've never talked to anyone about. So I'm sorry if I ramble but I've never had the practice of telling it, you see."

"Allright" he says as he watches her carefully, sitting back in his chair.

Jess hugs a pillow close to her body as she continues, "I was crazy once...I mean, really nuts, out of my mind...I think the clinical term was borderline psychotic. I was about 9, maybe 10 at the time... it's actually hard to remember."

"But you're better now, right" Daniel asks, sounding a bit alarmed.

She laughs, a short quick sound, "Oh yeah. I'm all kinds a better now. That was a long time ago, Daniel."

"My point is...back when I was crazy...you...I mean, my uncle Daniel was there with me. See...and this is important for you to understand..." she takes a deep breath to steady her voice, "After the war, my dad made a lot of enemies...He sent my uncle and I away, to keep us safe I think, but um...I guess something went wrong – I dunno what since I never could bring myself to find out later." Fiddling with her cast, she continues, "What I'm trying to say is...it was a bad time. Some people we didn't know came to the place we were staying and my uncle got mad and started arguing with them. I don't think they liked what he was saying, because more men came and then they started to fight. Somebody was holding me so I couldn't do anything to help. Then he started screaming at me, telling me to look away but I didn't because I wanted to see what was happening." She sits silently for a while, looking down at the pillow she has clutched in her hands.

Daniel asks gently, "What happened, Jess? What did they do?"

Jess works her jaw for a moment, sitting quietly as she alternately grabs the pillow with her good hand and lets it go. Finally she says, "They stabbed him. He was very brave, I think, because he didn't scream or anything. Not at first anyway, but the man that did it started twisting it around so I guess it must've hurt then because he did start screaming." Jess' voice drifts away.

Daniel sits, unsure of what say.

She continues, "I don't remember much of what happened for a long time after." Jess sniffles, wiping her eyes with the back of her good hand. "See, all I knew was that I was just waiting for him...to wake up and take me home."

Daniel whispers, "God...I'm so sorry."

She shakes her head, tugging at a ragged end of the cast on her arm, "Don't be. Wasn't your fault..." Shrugging her shoulders slightly, she continues, "I'd guess about a year after that... something different happened. I decided I was tired of waiting so I went looking for him. I got lost for awhile but I did finally find him." She lifts her gaze, looking now at Daniel with red-rimmed eyes, "Do you know what he said?"

Daniel nods slowly, answering, "My name is Daniel. But I'm...

"...I'm not your uncle." She finishes for him. "In my whole life, I can't remember being any happier than I was at that moment. I'd found him...and I knew everything was going to be ok. He...you... showed me the way home...".

"I woke up then...and I got better. Doctors said it was some new drugs they'd started me on. I never really gave it much thought...up until today." Taking a deep breath, she straightens her legs, sniffling some more she wipes her nose now with the pillow. "So...now you know why I freaked when you said what you said...all this time I thought it was just some weird hallucination. I hope you can understand. I didn't even think you were real when I saw you after I woke up here, y'know."

Daniel nods, saying, "Yeah...I got that. We all figured it was the concussion."

Running a hand through her hair again, she continues, "Well...yeah, I can see that." Reaching for the bottle of pills on the tabletop, she pulls the cap off with her teeth and downs two more. "Damn arm won't stop throbbing...I guess I deserve that."

Daniel asks, "You sure you should be taking so much of that?" but Jess shrugs, saying, "It's Tylenol...". Changing the subject, she says, "So...you know...about this whole Ancient thing you were talking about earlier. Um...and this is where my life gets a little more complicated."

Daniel perks up at this, asking, "So you do know something about the being that came through the gate ahead of you?" Smiling gently, he asks, "And how could it possibly get more complicated?"

She shakes her head, "Believe me, it can." She bites her lower lip as she tries to scratch an itch inside the cast, saying a bit hesitantly, "But about the creepy-crawly, no, I don't think I know anything about that. But the thing is, about that whole Ancient business, and I have no idea if this is going to make any sense to you, but, it's really important for you to keep in mind that I'm still mostly, um, y'know...human."

Standing swiftly, Daniel starts to pace the room, looking her over "Are you trying to tell me you're an Ancient?"

She shakes her head quickly, watching him as he moves, appearing agitated, "No, no, nonono...Um...but, um, I do have it on real good authority that my mom was."

He looks at her, smiling suddenly as realization begins to dawn, "So that's the connection then. That's probably how you were able to call me to you. How amazing is that? You were just a little kid. Do you know what this means??"

She looks up at him, shaking her head, "I have no idea...I'm still trying to fight the feeling this is some kind of freaky coma-induced dream."

Daniel gets all excited, forgetting her warning, he sits next to her on the bed, talking excitedly, "I was once ascended, Jess...that's how you and I were able to communicate."

"You mean to tell me you were all...octopussy?" " She wiggles the fingers on her good hand to mimic the wispy tendrils of an ascended being. She reaches out a finger and gently pokes him in the shoulder, "You feel pretty solid to me...just like you did back then."

He blinks, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose as he says, "Well...I'm human now. Um...but that's a long story. The thing is Jess...you obviously have some kind of gift. It's an amazing thing! We've never been able to communicate with an ascended unless they wanted to talk to us first." Unthinking, he reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder, "With you, we'll be able to, to...open the lines of communication with them! Try to get them off that damn fence they're on and convince them to help us!"

Not moving, Jess raises her red-rimmed eyes slowly to meet with Daniels as she says, "Slow down there, superman...um..this is just all a bit much for me to take right now."

Daniel finally notices his excitement isn't shared and he scoots back a bit, giving Jess some space. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to jump all over you like that."

She smiles softly, "It's all right...I'm just...so you're saying that thing took me from my home and brought me here? Why? So I can be a glorified operator?"

Daniel nods quickly, answering, "Yes...well...maybe...um...actually, I don't know."

They both look up as there is a soft knock on the door and Jack steps inside. "Hey kids...just making sure you both are all right. It's been real quiet in here."

Jess raises both hands, palms facing out saying, "I haven't touched him...I poked him once, but that was real gentle like." She offers him a half-smile.

Daniel stands from the bed, looking a bit frustrated that they've been interrupted, "I'm fine Jack. We've really made some progress."

Jack leans against the wall, nodding as he looks Jess over, "Yes, but you've been in here for almost two hours."

"Jack, I don't think that her being here is an accident. And she's not some Goa'uld trick...She's telling us the truth."

"And you say that because...?"

"Because she and I have met before, when she was a little girl and I was ascended. And there's something else Jack."

Daniel places both hands on Jack's shoulders, pulls him closer to where Jess sits on the bed, and whispers "She's not human."

She pipes up, "I'm mostly human."

"She's half Ancient."

Jack gives Jess a long look, finally asking in disbelief, "Nooo...your dad? With an Ancient?"

Jess nods twice.

"She cute?"

Jess nods three times.

Jack stares at Jess, saying, "Sweet."

Jess stands from the bed, running her good hand through her hair as she begins to pace, "This is so messed up. I've been kidnapped by a creepy looking thing, literally dumped God only knows where or when, end up talking to a guy whose been dead for the last 8 years and all he" she gestures with her finger, pointing at Jack, "can think about if is my mom was cute. That's just so gross...ugh. Can you both just get out? I need to think or something."

Daniel and Jack exchange glances, and Jack nods, "Oh yeah, sure...sorry about that."

Daniel offers Jess a sympathetic look, saying, "We'll talk again some more tomorrow, ok?"

She nods, saying, "Sure." As they both leave.

**_To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!_**


	7. Dreams and Nightmares

**_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._**

**Later that night**

_Scene – Daniel is lying in the infirmary, unconscious with a large bandage on his left temple. Together with the stitches above his left eye, it looks like he had a rough day._

As Daniel dreams he finds himself standing at the entrance to a long bridge. It is very foggy and he cannot see the other end of it. Next to him stands a young man.

Daniel looks at the dark haired boy, grown tall if still a bit on the skinny side, "Shifu." It is not a question.

A smile as the boy nods, "Yes."

"You've grown."

"Time has passed for me as it has not for you."

"Uh...right. What are we doing here? What are you doing here? Where is here?" He asks as he looks around, trying to see across the bridge. It is very dark and the only thing clearly visible is Shifu and the entrance.

"Oma teaches that they cannot all be saved. She teaches that we are beyond interfering with events that take place around us. That to do so could cause irreparable harm on the whole."

'Ok...um..."

The young man turns to face Daniel, "The girl sought you out. You were young and answered her call. Oma allowed you to go, so you could learn. I followed...it was then that you broke the First rule. You woke the girl from her dreams – brought her back to herself."

Nodding emphatically, he says "Yeah...I think I remember some of that." He crosses his arms over his chest, holding himself tightly adding, "She was just a little kid...scared and alone. I know what that feels like." He frowns slightly at the memory.

"Oma said you could not save them all but you told her 'It is only one I care about.' And I watched as you reached out to touch her face." The scene changes now to a park where we see children running and playing, although it is still dark.

"She showed you the effects of your actions. The girls fate would not be one of peace." The park changes to deserted streets, bombed out husks of buildings surrounding them. There is an image of a young woman, presumably Jess appearing battle hardened and wielding a gun, shooting at something. Horrified, Daniel watches helplessly as he sees the flash of an energy weapon go past him and strike her in the chest. She falls, just a few feet from where he stands but he finds he cannot move to help her.

Watching impassively, Shifu says, "It would have been better to leave her lost in her dreams. That was your first lesson."

Daniel shakes his head slowly, eyes widening as he stares at her lifeless body. He says softly, "I don't remember this."

Shifu offers Daniel a sad smile. The scene changes once again, a wooded area with autumn leaves carpeting the floor. He begins to walk as Daniel looks around slightly confused, but follows after. Shifu continues, "You returned with Oma to continue your lessons. But I wanted to know why you chose as you did. The way back closed as the child awoke – and I remained to observe, as I had been taught."

"I watched as she grew and I came to wonder at the life she had. Happiness tempered with remembered sorrow. I sometimes wondered if my life, had things been different, would have mirrored hers. At times, I thought to communicate with her – but the lessons Oma taught were still strong in me."

Daniel pauses to look at him, asking, "Shifu...you watched her as she grew up? Isn't that against the rules?"

He shakes his head slowly, moving now to stand at the bank of a river, "I merely observed...until...until it was clear that she would be no longer."

"No longer what?"

"The end of her life was near."

Perplexed, Daniel asks, "So you brought her here?"

Shifu nods, "She would not understand the dreams I sent her...she would not ascend to be with me. I made her remember...her need to be safe, to be happy. Through her need, she opened the conduit...and I...helped her to find you. I had hoped that the two of us could do what I could not alone. I did not know you were here like this. I did not know what had happened."

"Are you in love with her?" he asks softly.

Shifu looks up at Daniel, a smile reaching his eyes, but does not answer, except to say. "'It is only one I care about', I understand now what you meant."

The scene turns dark again; they are at the foot of the bridge once more.

Concerned now, Daniel asks, "Shifu, do the others know what you did?"

He nods, answering, "I believe it is time I taught those who will listen that we need not always be observers. There are times when one must act – I have learned merely existing isn't enough."

Daniel stares at him in disbelief, "Are they going to do to you what...they did to me?"

"They will have to find me first..." he smiles, offering a hand to Daniel, "Oma once said, you cannot save them all. But you saved the one...and now I've brought her to you. Perhaps she can help you save the rest."

Frowning, he asks, "Save the rest? What are you talking about?"

The fog rolls in as Shifu steps on the bridge. His voice echoes from the distance, "The answer is in the question you ask."

"Wait!"

Daniel awakens shouting, "No, wait!"

"Easy Dr. Jackson. You should lay back down now."

Looking around confused, he wonders at the fact he's in the infirmary, "Wha? What's happened? Why am I here?"

The night shift doctor places a hand on his shoulder, trying to get him to lie back down. She glances up a one of the nurses, saying "Let's prepare that sedative now." Turning back to Daniel, she says, "You had a bit of a fall Dr. Jackson and hit your head."

Daniel continues to try to sit up, saying, "I'm fine... I need to talk to Jess."

"Dr. Jackson, please try to relax. You've been unconscious for almost 12 hours."

Seeing the nurse approaching, he says, raising both arms in front of him, "No, no...I don't need that. See? I'm relaxing. See?" He lays back down as the nurse hands the doctor the syringe, "I ah...I really do need to see Jess though."

The doctor gives him a look, checking his pupils, before saying carefully, "She was moved from the base shortly after you collapsed."

He blinks, looking at the doctor in surprise, "I did not collapse...I...uh...please, I need to see Colonel O'Neill then."

'He's on his way now. We had standing orders to call him as soon as you woke up. He should be here soon."

The doctor puts the needle on the tray nearby and continues to check Daniel's vitals.

Jack appears at the doorway, smiling as he sees Daniel awake. "Hey...you gotta stop doing stuff like that."

Daniel sits up slowly, carefully eyeing the doctor as he says, "Jack...why isn't Jess still here?"

"Hammond had his orders, remember? The higher ups want a chance to question her."

"I need to see her. It's very important that I see her right now."

"You aren't in any condition to see anybody right now, Daniel. Right doc?"

The doctor nods in agreement.

"Jack, will you please just listen to me! This...isn't a medical condition. Shifu did this."

"Come again?"

"You remember...Share's kid...the Harcesis child? Made me dream I was God's gift to despotism?"

"Uh...yeah...where does he fit into all of this?"

"He's the one that brought her here. He's the one on the video."

"Oh...ok...." He drawls out slowly, pulling up a chair to sit next to the bed.

Sitting up, Daniel says quickly, starting to sound agitated, "He's in love with her or, or something. He said that she was going to die and he was trying to save her. Actually, he was trying to get her to ascend, and somehow, he helped her find me. He thought between the two of us, we'd convince her to ascend." Clenching his jaw, he adds, "He had no idea what had happened to me."

Fiddling with one of the medical instruments laying on the table next to Daniel, Jack says, "This is starting to sound like a soap opera."

Daniel gives Jack a dark look, "The point is...right before I woke up, he told me that I saved her once and that maybe now she was could help me save 'the rest'. "

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know. He left before telling me...no...actually, he said that the answer was in the question I asked and then he left."

"And what question would that be?"

"I have no idea!" Seeing the look he's gotten from the doctor, Daniel quiets down, saying, "But this can't be good. Whatever it is, she knows about it or something. Maybe it happened already in her world and she can help us avoid whatever it is."

"Well, if she does know something like that, no doubt the boys she's with now will find out about it and let us know. I'll keep you in the loop."

"No Jack, you don't understand. Shifu said he brought her to me. I don't think she's going to be talking to anyone else. I mean, for Gods sakes, you saw how she was when we first tried to talk to her."

Jack nods slightly, saying, "Well, I've got that covered. I sent Carter along with her, just in case, y'know...to supervise the questioning and keep her in check. Just in case."

Daniel rubs his eyes, looking around for his glasses, "So, what happened anyway?"

Smiling slightly, he says, "It looks like you fell asleep, fell out of your chair and hit your head. We don't think you were out for very long before the cleaning crew found you."

Wincing, Daniel reaches up and feels the bump on his head, "How'd Jess take the news of having to be transferred out of here?"

Jack quickly puts away the medical instrument he was playing with as it has fallen apart in his hands, "Oh, she was fine. Very up, really. She said she was looking forward to helping us in anyway she could."

Putting on his glasses, Daniel eyes Jack, "And you believed her?"

Jack licks his lips, thinking about this for a moment, "Well, it seemed like such a good thing at the time...but I see your point."

Mid-Afternoon - Peterson Airforce Base

Sam sits in a sectioned off area of an interrogation room and watches Jess through a one way mirror. Jess has her hands are folded on the table as she stares straight ahead. There are two men sitting directly in front of her wearing air force uniforms. One, a Lieutenant is taking notes as well as working a tape recorder, the other, a Major, is conducting the interview.

Major Tate swallows hard, frowning as he asks for the third time, "Ok young lady...we know that you can answer the questions I've been asking. This isn't rocket science. So, again, who is the president of the United States in 2017?

Jess offers Tate a glare, answering with, "You can kiss my..."

_---ringtone---_

Sam reaches down into her purse to answer her cell phone. "Hello? Yes sir. I'm here. Yes...well...they're not making much progress but it's only been about an hour. Everything seemed to be going fine, until a Major Tate took over the debriefing." She covers up a laugh, saying, "Well, by the looks of things, I'd say Jess agrees with your opinion of the Major." Looking up quickly as she hears a banging noise and watches as Major Tate thumps the table with his fist as if trying to make a point.

"What? He did? He's ok though, right? Sure...I'll let them know." She hangs up the phone, standing and calls the guard outside to get Major Tate for her.

After a moment, a red faced Tate approaches, "Major Carter? What can I help you with?"

"I've just received word that Colonel Jack O'Neill will be here within the hour with Dr. Daniel Jackson. They have some questions they need to ask Jess, so I was thinking now would be a good time to call a break."

He shakes his head, "I'm sorry, but the SGC doesn't have jurisdiction on this anymore."

Sam's eyes widen in disbelief, "What? You've got to be kidding. I'm under orders to supervise this interview process."

Tate says, "And I have my orders, Major. As of an hour ago, Ms. O'Neill has been classified as an unaccompanied refugee minor and all legal authority to act in place of parent or guardian has been granted to the NID." Clearing his throat, he continues, "We let you stay here as a courtesy, part of inter-organizational cooperation and to aid in Ms. O'Neill's transition. However, your assistance is no longer required. You may inform Colonel O'Neill that Ms. O'Neill has no authorized visitors as of yet."

Narrowing her eyes, Sam says, "You guys have been planning this all along, haven't you?"

Major Tate shrugs, gesturing to one of the guards down the hall, "Major Carter, I thank you for your assistance with Ms. O'Neill, but at the moment, I have an appointment to keep. If you would please let Sgt. Bellamy escort you to your car."

Sam eyes Tate, "This isn't over."

Major Tate offers her a tight smile, before turning on his heel and walking down the hallway.

_**To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!**_


	8. Up A Creek

**_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._**

**Next morning, back at the SGC**

The team is gathered in the briefing room once again, Sam and Teal'c watching quietly as a distressed Daniel continue his arguments, "We don't have time for this! God only knows what's coming!"

"Dr. Jackson, I'm afraid it's out of my hands." Hammond says, shaking his head. "I have made calls to everyone I know and no one wants to touch this. They feel any information they get out of the girl is worth more than…"

Daniel finishes for him, saying sarcastically, "Possibly saving the world?!'

Listening to the exchanges, Jack has been sitting uncharacteristically subdued as he fiddles with a pen and his notepad.

"That's enough, Dr. Jackson. I wish there was something I could do, but I can't. And that's the last I'm going to say on the matter." He sits back in his chair, hoping he has made his point, "People, you are a go for your next mission in two days. Your briefing packets will be delivered to you within the hour. Dismissed."

Daniel storms out of the room, while Sam and Teal'c follow after him. Jack remains seated as does Hammond. When the rest of the team departs, he looks at Hammond. "Jess told Daniel that her father had a lot of enemies."

Hammond nods slowly, "That's right."

"I'm supposing he and I have that one thing in common, at least." Sighing, he asks, "Sir, do you really think this is wise? We know there's a rogue element of the NID out there. God only knows what they'd do if they ever got their hands on her. And to be honest, I'm not sure how much I trust the non-rogue element of the NID."

Leaning back slightly in his chair, Hammond asks, "Your point, Colonel?

"At least here, with us, we know she'd be safe."

Hammond asks, "And then what, Colonel? She can't stay here indefinitely."

"No…but at least it would give us time to think about what we can do for her. I'm sure Carter can figure something out…maybe the Asgard can help."

"But as it stands now, she can't go home and we can't send her to live off world because she may know too much about the operations of the SGC. We can't risk that kind of information getting into the wrong hands." Hammond says flatly.

Pressing both palms on the surface of the table in front of him, O'Neill bursts out with, "Damnit George! If that were my daughter, stuck in some alternate reality, I'd hope she'd be treated with a bit more compassion and less like a science experiment!"

Hammond defends his stance on the matter by saying, "Son, I stand firm in my belief that some lines just aren't meant to be crossed. I said it back when we had two Samantha Carters, and I'm saying it again now. It just doesn't sit right." He says softly, "Jack, she's not your daughter."

Still angry, Jack says, "I know that. Believe me, I know that. It's just; none of this is making any sense to me. We've helped people, God! Risked our lives to help people for a lot less reasons than we have to help Jess." Shaking his head, he asks, "Don't you believe what Daniel said about needing her to stop this disaster that's coming? That alone should be reason enough. I just don't get it…" He eyes Hammond for a moment, coming to a realization about something, "There's something you're not telling me."

Meeting Jack's steady gaze, Hammond says, "Colonel…Jack…I'm already late for another briefing. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Jack narrows his eyes, offering Hammond a slow half-smile, "No sir…"

Hammond nods as Jack stands, and when he reaches the door, Hammond says, "Colonel…one more thing. I have been assured that the NID will be transporting Ms. O'Neill to a more secure facility sometime this afternoon, so I'm sure she'll be fine."

Pausing at the door, Jack looks over his shoulder at Hammond and asks, "More secure than a military base?"

Hammond nods in response.

With a straight face, O'Neill says, "Thank you sir. That does make me feel a lot better."

**A short while later**

Carrying two packs, O'Neill enters Daniel's office. Sam and Teal'c are there, speaking quietly to a visibly upset Daniel. Jack sets the packs down on Daniel's workbench, saying, "Ah, look. The gangs all here."

Shooting Jack a baleful glare, Daniel asks, 'What do you want Jack?"

"Ah…to see you, actually. Major?" He turns to look at Sam.

Offering her full attention to the Colonel, Sam says, "Yes sir?"

Fiddling with one of the packs, he answers, "I need you to go work on a project."

Raising a brow, she asks, "Uh…ok sir. Which project would that be?"

Waving one hand negligently up in the air, he says, "Oh, I dunno. Pick one; just make sure it involves finding a way to get Jess back where she belongs. But you need to go do it now." Giving her a level gaze, he adds, 'That's an order."

Giving the rest of her team a confused look, she salutes O'Neill and nods, "Yes sir…" and leaves the room, appearing none too pleased.

Daniel frowns, winching slightly as the movement pulls at his stitches. He watches as Sam leaves and asks, "What was that all about?"

"We're going on a little expedition and I don't want our Major to get into any trouble."

Teal'c tilts his head, looking at O'Neill, "Are we to retrieve Jess O'Neill now?"

"Never could get anything past you, Teal'c old buddy." He reaches into one of the packs and hands Daniel and Teal'c each a Zat'nikatel.

Surprised, Daniel nonetheless nods as he takes the weapon. Quickly, he stands and reaches into the nearby closet and pulls out a backpack. "How do you know we can get to her?"

Giving his friend a small smile, Jack simply says, "Trust me, Daniel. I just know."

**1300 hours**

Jack sits patiently in his car that is parked in an unpaved access road on the tree-lined road that leads to and from Peterson Airforce base. Using a radio, he calls, "See anything, T?"

A short distance away, Teal'c answers from his vantage point, "Only a vehicle that appears to be experiencing a malfunction. A woman has pulled to the side of the road and is attempting repairs."

"Daniel?" Comes Jack's voice over the radio.

Through the radio comes Daniel's voice, "I got nothing. No wait…something is coming. Two vehicles, one is a military jeep; the other is a black van with no windows."

Looking at his watch, O'Neill frowns, murmuring to himself, "That's got to be it. Nothing's come out of there all afternoon." He starts the car, putting it into gear and calls into the radio, "We're on. Let me know when they drive past that mile marker."

Calling into his radio, Teal'c says, "The vehicles have moved to my position. Something is happening. The driver from the malfunctioning vehicle is waving them down. They are stopping." Teal'c maintains a lookout to see what is happening as he makes his way back towards the car.

Running, Daniel appears through the trees and heads towards Teal'c. Catching his breath, he asks, "What's happening?"

Teal'c says, "I am not certain." He gestures to the view below them and they can see the woman talking to the soldier driving the Jeep.

The driver of the Van steps out of the car but almost as quickly takes a step back as suddenly the driver and passenger of the Jeep are both shot by the woman who flagged them down. In a heartbeat, she turns her attention to the van driver, waving the gun at him and he raises his arms, placing his hands behind his head.

"God! We've got to get down there." Daniel moves as if to run headlong down the path towards the car, but Teal'c restrains him. "We will, but we must wait to see what the woman intends to do."

"We've got to do something." And he reaches for his cell phone, placing a call to 911.

Over the radio, O'Neill can be heard, "T? What's taking so long? They should be here by now."

As he asks the question, Teal'c watches as the van driver kneels on the floor and the woman steps up to him. She suddenly kicks him in the face and he drops. She appears to talk into her hand, perhaps using a radio and steps into the Van, closing the door and drives off.

"We are observing some disturbing events. A woman has shot several of the soldiers and is now driving the van. Daniel Jackson is calling for emergency services to assist the soldiers.

"One person did all that?" O'Neill asks in disbelief.

"Indeed" Teal'c replies.

Muttering a curse, Jack says, "Amateurs!" as he pulls the car out of it's hiding place.

"I believe the van should be nearing your position at any moment."

"I'm on it." Comes Jack's reply.

**A few miles down the road**

O'Neill has followed the van at what he hopes is a not too obvious distance. The road is winding and heavily tree-lined, but just ahead on the side of the road is a rest stop. He drives past as he notices the van start to slow down and pull into the clearing. Driving ahead he calls into the radio, "T, you need to stop your car and continue on foot after the next mile marker. They've stopped the van at the pit stop."

At the next bend, O'Neill pulls his car over and steps out, breaking into a run heading back towards the parked van. Keeping to the trees, he approaches quietly and watches as the woman speaks into her cell phone, appearing angry about something. The woman turns to go to the back of the van and pulls open the doors.

Looking up, Jack curses and calls into the radio. "Daniel, T, watch your six. Chopper coming in from the south."

From the radio, Jack can hear Daniel, "We're approaching your position. We can see the van now. How do you want this to play out?"

"Let's do this the easy way. I'll walk up and make pleasant conversation with the lady. Teal'c comes up from behind her, Zats her and we make a grab for Jess."

"What about the helicopter?" Daniel asks as the chopper begins to circle overhead.

Calling out from behind the trees, he says, "Hey! Excuse me! Mam, do you think you can help me? I'm a little lost. I parked my car around here somewhere and I can't seem to find it."

Startled, the woman looks over at Jack. Momentarily distracted, it gives Teal'c the opportunity to Zat her. Groaning in pain, she drops to the ground even as the helicopter begins to land.

Daniel calls out as Jack runs over to the driver side of the van, "Jaack! They've landed!" and he keeps his Zat pointed towards the helicopter as he walks towards the Van. Teal'c flanks him, also keeping his weapon pointed at the chopper. Jack calls out, "Get in!"

Daniel climbs into the back of the van as Teal'c closes the doors, running to sit in the passenger side. Daniel is momentarily stunned, seeing Jess lying on her side, unmoving on the floor of the van.

Hands starting to shake, he gently turns her onto her back. Scanning quickly for signs of injury, and thankfully seeing none, he feels for a pulse.

Sighing in relief, Daniel says, "Uh…she's alive. Unconscious, but alive." Sitting down next to her, he takes off his jacket and uses it as a pillow for her head. Stroking her cheek, he says softly, "Jess. Wake up!"

She stirs slightly, and Daniel smiles. Continuing to stroke her cheeks, he says encouragingly, "That's a girl. Open your eyes."

Looking up, he calls out to the front of the van, "How is it going? That chopper still on us?"

"No. I'm thinking they don't need to. They know what we're driving. We'll need to ditch the van soon. How she doing?"

"She's coming around, I think." He says as he looks down, brushing the hair from her face. She looks very young, suddenly reminding him of that frightened little girl she once was when they first met. Her brown eyes open as she tries to focus on the face staring down at her. Daniel smiles as he notices how familiar those brown eyes look to him. Without thinking, he says softly, "Hey sleepy head. Anyone ever tell you, you've got your dad's eyes?"

Jess' eyes narrow at that. She tries to pull away from Daniel but only manages a groan.

"Easy…let me help." As he pulls her up to a sitting position.

Holding her head in her hands, she almost totters to one side and Daniel has to support her. Leaning into his shoulder, she says with a shaky voice, "Tate…bastard Tate." Her eyes start to roll into the back of her head.

Shaking her slightly, Daniel says, "Jess? C'mon kiddo…you need to wake up. What did Tate do? Did he drug you?"

Groggily, she manages to say, "ungh…bastard told driver…I was special delivery. I'm always special delivery." And she passes out again.

In the front of the van, Teal'c looks out the window, trying to see if the helicopter is pursuing them. He asks, "What is our next course of action, O'Neill?"

Jack slows a bit as he sees approaching emergency vehicles coming in the opposite direction. "I'm not sure, actually. I didn't think this far ahead when I came up with this plan."

Teal'c raises a brow, saying. "Indeed." He offers a suggestion, "Perhaps we should return to the SGC, as we have obviously rescued Jess O'Neill from some nefarious purpose."

O'Neill nods, saying, "Definitely need to call Hammond and tell him what just happened."

"Crap." O'Neill says as he spots a roadblock up ahead, civilian police cars parked in the way. He is flagged down by an officer.

From the back of the van, Daniel's voice can be heard. Sounding extremely concerned, he says, "Guys? I think we have a problem here…I…I don't think she's breathing properly. I…I think she's been drugged."

"Keep it together back there Daniel. She'll be fine. Just keep her quiet." Pulling over, Jack reaches into jacket to pull out his military ID. He breathes a sigh of relief as he sees military vehicles approaching the roadblock as an idea comes to him.

Nodding to the police officer, Jack says nonchalantly, "Hello officer. The name is Colonel Jack O'Neill and I need to talk to those guys right over there." He says, gesturing to the approaching vehicles and flashing his ID.

Teal'c watches as O'Neill briefly speaks to the military man, and then places a phone call on his cell phone. After exchanging salutes, Jack walks back to the van.

As he steps inside, Teal'c asks, "What is our status?"

Jack answers glibly, "Uh…I managed to convince Hammond that ah…Jess' life is in danger and she'd be safest back at the SGC for the time being. She any better?"

A worried Daniel replies, "No…but at least it's not getting any worse."

Jack turns his head to look into the back of the van and can see Daniel sitting on the floor of the van cradling Jess protectively. Frowning slightly, he says again as if trying to convince himself, "She'll be fine." He starts the van and drives off, escorted by two of the military vehicles as they make their way back to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

As they drive, Teal'c asks, "O'Neill, how will we prevent her removal once again from the SGC once she has suitably recovered?"

Tapping the steering wheel with one hand he says, "Well, for starters we're not going to let her out of our sight once we get back." Shrugging slightly, he continues, "Besides…maybe Carter's figured out something by now. She's had a few uninterrupted hours to think about it."

"Indeed."

The drive back to the mountain is quiet, except for the occasional murmurings coming from the back of the van, where it sounds as if Daniel is trying to offer comforting words to the still unconscious Jess. Upon arrival, they are greeted by a medic team. Daniel climbs out of the van and watches as the team goes to their business of checking her vitals and then transferring her to the stretcher.

O'Neill calls out, "Daniel, stay with her."

Calling out behind him as he races to catch up with the medics as they push Jess towards the entrance, Daniel says, "I know, I know! I won't let her out of my sight!"

After speaking briefly with the soldiers who escorted them to the base, O'Neill and Teal'c head back into the mountain. In the elevator down, Teal'c takes the moment to say, "O'Neill, I believe that in the decisions to come concerning Jess O'Neill's fate, you must act in her fathers' stead."

Jack looks up at Teal'c, eyes startled at his friends' words, but quickly looks away, "I'm going to do what's best for that kid, because she's a kid and she didn't ask for any of this. Who her father is, or isn't, is beside the point." Almost angrily he says as the doors to the elevators open, "He was insane to let her go through the Stargate. How could he do that?"

"I am sure he had the best of intentions, O'Neill." Comes Teal'c calm reply.

O'Neill throws both hands up in the air, shaking his head and doesn't respond to that as he makes his way to Hammonds office.

**At the same time, in the infirmary**

Daniel hovers nearby as the Doctors attempt to stabilize Jess. Fighting the urge to pace, he stands with arms crossed, hands tucked up under his arms. His brow slightly furrowed as he watches them work. Finally seeing a moment to talk to Dr. Fraiser, he asks, "How is she? What's wrong with her?"

Angrily, the doctor responds, "According to the blood tests we've just run, it looks like she's overdosed on pain killers. It's lucky you got to her when you did. Another hour and she'd probably be dead."

Daniel's eyes go wide, "Pain killers?" He shakes his head, "God…I knew I should've said something. I thought…It seemed to me that she was taking too many of them."

Fraiser gives Daniel a surprised look as she asks, "Wait a minute. You knew and you didn't say anything?"

Nodding slowly, he says, "I asked her and she said it was ok…and after I was distracted by what had just happened. Is she going to be ok?"

Fraiser shakes her head, a bit disappointed but doesn't push it instead answering, "Yes. She should be fine by morning."

Noticing that Daniel has suddenly gotten a bit pale, she sets down a chart, she asks, looking at him carefully, "Are you all right?" she reaches for his arm and takes his pulse.

Daniel looks up at her, gingerly rubbing at his temples with his free hand. He's beginning to feel a headache, his head throbbing where he hit it last night…was it only last night?, "Yeah…I'm fine. Just got a headache, that's all."

She doesn't look like she believes him, but can see he is visibly concerned about Jess' so decides to let it go, instead asking, "Will you be staying with her?"

Pulling up a chair to sit next to Jess' bed, Daniel nods, "Yeah. Think she'll be out for awhile?"

"It's hard to say. She'll probably sleep for several hours. I'll be back soon to check on her again. I need contact Dr. Mackenzie so he can evaluate her in the morning."

Agitated, he asks quickly, "What? Why? No…don't call him."

Gently, Dr. Fraiser says, "Daniel, she just attempted suicide. She needs help."

"We don't know it was her."

Janet gives him a look, "You just told me you saw her take more of the meds than you thought she should."

He shakes his head a bit, not answering instead settling into his seat, a pensive look on his face as he watches Jess sleep, one hand reaching up to feel around the stitches above his eye. Finally asking quietly, "Can it be somebody other than Mackenzie?"

"I'm sorry Daniel. He's the only one available and this can't wait. And don't pick at that." She swats his hand away, then gently pats him on the shoulder, "I'll have one of the nurses bring you something for that headache, ok?

He nods a thank you, asking, "Are you…you going to tell Jack about this?"

She shakes her head, saying, "I'm going to tell General Hammond and I expect he will take care of informing the Colonel", she pauses, "For both of us."

**_To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!_**


	9. Without A Paddle

_**Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.**_

**Infirmary - Early morning**

The infirmary is quiet and Daniel finds himself dosing in his chair. The feeling of being watched makes him stir and he opens his eyes, finding Jess awake and looking at him.

Sitting up, he says as he stifles a yawn, "Hey. It's good to see you awake." He moves his chair a bit closer to her bed, reaching out a hand and gently brushing the hair from her face. He smiles softly, asking, "How are you feeling?"

She reaches out and touches his cheek, letting her fingertips linger for a moment before pulling her hand back. Blinking back tears, she says, her voice sounding hoarse, "I look at you…and it won't stop hurting. I…I need it to stop hurting Daniel. You've been dead and buried in my heart for so long…but now here you are." Whispering, she says, "I think I'm losing my mind."

Quickly he reaches up his hand to take hers in his, giving it a tight squeeze and saying reassuringly, "No Jess, please don't feel that way. I...I'm sorry that my being here is causing you so much pain, but you need to know, you aren't losing your mind."

Crying now, she says, "I'm not so sure Daniel. I couldn't get the gate to lock – I felt so helpless. Nothing I did worked. I...I fell asleep and I dreamed something I hadn't dreamed since the day you died. I was lost and I was so scared. And all I could think of was that I wanted to go home so badly." Swallowing a sob, she continues, "And I just knew. I knew that if I found you everything would be ok. You would make everything ok. When I stepped through the gate, that's all I could think of. Not my dad. Not getting home. Just finding you was all that mattered. I chose you over everything else."

Pulling away from his touch, she says "And look…it worked. I found you…again." Covering her face with her hands, "I've lost everything. It's my fault. I did this."

Gently, Daniel moves to sit next to her on the bed, offering what comfort he can, "No…no Jess. It wasn't you… it wasn't your fault." Turmoil showing on his face, though Jess can't see it, Daniel fights with a decision. Finally making a choice, he says softly, "There's something you need to know."

**At the same time - Hammonds briefing room**

O'Neill sits in the briefing room, with Hammond, Major Tate and a General Rogers all discussing the events from the day before. O'Neill is arguing with Tate, accusing him of negligence with Tate vehemently defending himself. Rogers sits stony faced listening to the arguing, insisting that Jess is to be returned to Peterson Airforce base as soon as she is able to be moved. Hammond sits back, trying not to lose patience as he awaits the rest of the people joining them at the meeting.

Quickly enough, the door opens and Kinsey enters the room accompanied by Major Davis. O'Neill looks up, face set hard as he says, "Ah, Senator Kinsey…I should have known." Nodding a greeting, he says, "Major Davis."

Kinsey says by way of greeting, "Gentlemen." He takes a seat, continuing, "I'm here to make sure that Ms. O'Neill is returned to the NID immediately. She is quite possibly the most valuable thing to come through the gate since the inception of the Stargate program."

O'Neill frowns, growling, "She is not a thing. She is a kid who was kidnapped from her own reality and dumped at our footstep. She has rights."

Kinsey nods, saying in all sincerity, "Yes she does. This is why the NID has legal custody of her, to make sure her rights are protected."

O'Neill scoffs, "You call having her kept from visitors and sitting idly by while she overdosed on pain killers protecting her rights?!" Shooting an accusatory look at Tate, he adds, "Not to mention the fact that she was about to be kidnapped, thanks to your piss poor security!"

"We are only trying to protect her, Colonel O'Neill." Kinsey repeats, "We don't know yet who we can trust to visit her, and to your point, rightly so." He shrugs slightly, adding, "As for the apparent drug overdose, we've got an investigation open as to why the pills weren't removed from her possession when she was turned over to us. I believe they were prescribed by your own Dr. Fraiser? But that is beside the point, Colonel O'Neill. There really isn't anything to discuss here. We are all very grateful that you and your team happened to be in the right place to prevent Ms. O'Neill's kidnapping. But be that as it may, you don't have any say in anything concerning the girl."

Kinsey glances at Major Davis. Nodding, Davis looks over at O'Neill and begins to speak, "As a matter of fact sir, I wanted to review this report you turned in about the incident…"

Jack's eyes go a bit wild at Kinsey's words and he speaks over Davis, "To hell I don't!" He pulls out a piece of paper from his pant pocket and tosses it so it lands in front of Kinsey. Pointing at it, he says, "That's all I need to get her away from you and your NID goons."

Looking none too pleased, Kinsey unfolds the paper and asks, "What's this?"

"DNA test results."

Reading through the paper, Kinsey laughs, "And what is this supposed to prove?"

"That I'm that girls biological father."

Kinsey laughs again, "You can't be serious?!"

Voice flat, Jack says, "It'll hold up in any court of law Kinsey. And believe me; I will bring the law into this if I have to."

In disbelief, Kinsey says, "For Gods sakes, she's from an alternate reality! It's not as if she's really your daughter. You'd risk exposing the SGC program all for this girl?"

"I won't have too. The results speak for itself. There's no test to determine if someone is from an alternate reality. We wouldn't even have to go there…if we didn't have to." he leaves this as an open ended threat.

Hammond asks, "Colonel, are you sure you want to pursue this course of action?"

Answering, he says, "Yes Sir. She's been through enough."

Kinsey hands the paper to Major Davis, giving him a meaningful look. Glancing quickly at the paper, Davis says, "This is unprecedented. I'll have to discuss this with my superiors at the pentagon."

Taking a deep breath, Jack moves to stand and addresses General Hammond, "I think I've said all I need to say at this meeting. If I may be excused, Sir?"

Looking displeased, Hammond nods, "We will talk again later, Colonel."

Scowling, Kinsey says, "This isn't over by a long shot, O'Neill."

Ignoring the comment, O'Neill steps out of the room. Once outside of view, he takes a moment to lean against the doorway, running both hands through his silvering hair. Shaking his head, he straightens, and then heads down to the infirmary.

**Infirmary**

As O'Neill approaches the infirmary, he hears a commotion and he groans, already knowing what to expect. He finds Daniel standing outside the door leading to the infirmary, with his glasses in one hand and the other pinching the bridge of his nose.

O'Neill pauses, watching him for a moment before asking, "Uh…what's going on?"

Daniel puts his glasses back on, looking up at Jack with a serious look on his face, "Well…Jess is a bit upset at the moment."

Starting to hear curse words, at least he assumes they're curse words because they're not in English, O'Neill raises a brow, "A bit…?" Clearing his throat he asks, "What brought this on…uh…is that…?"

Shuffling his feet a bit, Daniel nods, "She's cursing in Goa'uld." Giving Jack a sidelong glance, he half-smiles, "She's pretty good at it."

Trying to peer into the room, O'Neill asks, "Really? Hm...Teal'c would be impressed. Soooo…?"

Licking his lips, and avoiding eye contact, Daniel pushes his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose as he says, "Um…well…I told her about Shifu."

Giving him a direct stare, O'Neill asks, "You didn't."

Daniel nods again, ducking his head as he folds his arms across his chest, 'I did."

Jack sighs, shaking his head, "Not the smartest decision you've ever made Daniel."

Eyes red and swollen, Daniel looks for all the world like he's about to cry. But he still manages to straighten his chin, and give Jack a defiant glare. He defends his decision by saying, "She has the right to know why she's here." Emphasizing his words now with his hands, he says, "It wasn't just an accident and it's not her fault. She really needed to know that."

"You told her everything?"

"Yes"

"Even the part about her having an invisible stalker for the last bunch of years?"

Nodding slowly, Daniel says, "Uh…I don't think of it that way…but yes, I did."

Staring at Daniel for a long moment, Jack suddenly makes a fist and fights back the urge to do some damage to the archeologist and he mock hits the wall instead, "God, Daniel! Argh!"

Jack takes a deep breath, makes as if to say more to Daniel, but then takes in his haggard appearance, noting how the cuts over his left brow starting to take on a purplish tinge and instead says, "Daniel…just go home. Go get some sleep." He gestures Daniel off with a wave of his hand as he walks into the infirmary.

Jess is sitting up in her bed, her face a thundercloud as she spouts off more curses to the unseen around her. He spies Fraiser standing arms akimbo looking at Jess, and he walks to stand next to her.

"How's the patient?"

Shaking her head slightly, Fraiser says, "Angry. What did Daniel tell her?"

Stuffing both hands in his pockets, he says noncommittally, "Oh…some stuff."

Shooting them both a glare, she shouts at them, "Don't talk like I'm not here! I'm not the invisible one, remember!??" and she spews some more choice words.

"So..uh…you aren't going to sedate her?"

Janet offers him a half-smile, as if saying, 'I wish I could.' Instead she says, "I can't, not with the amount of drugs she's already had in her system over the last 12 hours. She'll be ok as long as she calms down in another…" looking at her watch, "2 minutes."

Raising a brow at Fraiser, she explains, "I told her she could be as mad as she wanted to be for 5 minutes as long as she didn't try to get out of bed. After that…we'll see…"

Jack shakes his head, wondering at Janet's patience with her patient. He says in his very best authoritative voice, "That's enough!"

Jess shoots O'Neill a murderous look, but quickly closes her mouth. She sucks in deep breaths through clenched teeth, alternately balling her good hand into a fist and straightening her fingers.

He gestures at Fraiser, motioning to her he's got it under control. She nods and slips away, giving them some privacy. Moving to stand closer to the bed, he stares down at Jess and asks, "Better now?"

Voice cracking, she tells him, "How could that thing do that to me? He used me…my pain…" she sucks in a deep breath, unable to finish the thought, instead saying, "My life is a joke."

Calmly, he responds, "No its not. You're alive because of what that Shifu kid did."

Lower lip trembling as she tries to control her emotions, she says, "He should've let me die. "

Shaking his head, he explains, "No…he shouldn't have. He did the right thing. Let me tell you something…if I was given the choice of letting my kid die, or having him alive someplace where he'd be safe, even if I never saw him again, I'd choose that."

Jess stares up at him listening to those words, tears falling from her eyes, "My dad didn't get that choice, Jack." She sobs and O'Neill sits next to her, gathering her up in his arms and lets her cry into his shoulder.

Jack holds her tightly, shushing her softly, "It's all right Jess." Remembering Teal'c's words to him, he says, "I've made the choice for him. You're going to stay here." He hesitates a moment before saying, "I don't want you to go back someplace where you're going to die. None of us do."

**Late morning**

After watching Jack walk into the infirmary, Daniel heads to his office with his head lowered and shoulders slightly slumped, wondering if he did the right thing after all. He hadn't expected her anger and wasn't quite sure he hadn't made things worse for the girl. Fighting the urge to blame himself for causing her so much pain, he changes his clothes, and makes his way to the surface, heading home as ordered.

He drives home mechanically, distracted by the turmoil in his mind; he doesn't notice a vehicle pull in behind him as he approaches the last stop nearing his home. The impact of his Jeep getting rear-ended brings him to reality and he mutters a curse, "Great. What now?" and he stops the car, getting out to see the damage.

_**To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!**_


	10. Out Of The Frying Pan

_**Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.**_

**Same day, early afternoon in the infirmary**

Teal'c is just outside the door, keeping his distance but maintaining a careful watch as Dr. Mackenzie enters the room.

He pulls up the well used chair by Jess' bedside and pulls out a notepad, saying by way of greeting, "Ms. O'Neill."

She doesn't look up from her book as she acknowledges his presence with a, "Doc."

Taking a pen out of his shirt pocket, he proceeds to write something down, "How're you feeling today?"

Still reading her book, she answers, "Fine." Though she can barely keep the contempt out of her voice.

He writes diligently in his notebook. "I am noting a hint of anger in your tone. Are you sure you're feeling fine?"

"Yes"

He writes in his notebook some more, "Hm"

That makes her look over at him. Frowning, she asks, "Hm, what?"

He answers blithely, "Just making an observation"

She sits back in the bed, setting her book aside, saying, "I said I was fine."

He taps the pen lightly on the edge of his notebook as he looks up at her, asking, "I understand that you were kidnapped by an alien life form and brought here to the SGC. Can you tell me how you feel about that?"

She gives him a flat stare, "Like I'm Dorothy." Sticking a bare foot out from under the blankets, she says, "'Cept somebody stole my ruby slippers so I can't go home." She wiggles her toes at him.

"I see." He pulls out a small tape recorder and sets it on the table next to him, pressing record. "Can you tell me what happened yesterday afternoon?"

Sighing, she answers, "I was apparently rescued,"

"And?" he prompts.

"And what?"

He writes diligently in his notebook. "What else happened yesterday afternoon?

She says simply, "Nothing happened."

Standing, he reaches out his hand, "Can you explain to me what happened to the contents of this?" and shows her the empty pill bottle containing her pain killers.

Turning away from him, Jess shrugs, but doesn't answer.

"Ms. O'Neill, you need to be truthful with me if I am to help you with your problem"

Lifting her chin, she says, "Doc…the only problem I have is you."

Slightly chastising, he says, "Ms. O'Neill."

She heaves a deep sigh, "Fine. I don't have a problem. I have many problems. None of which you can even begin to help me with, so I wouldn't even bother trying. "

Trying to draw her out, he offers, "Let's start with one problem at a time and see where we go from there."

Rubbing her forehead with her good hand, she says, really trying to keep from sounding annoyed "Problem #1. I don't like you. Problem #2 my arm is itching so bad I think I'm going to scream. Problem #3 It's been what…5 days and I've already been kidnapped twice…once not so legally, once apparently legally and oh, that would be three times if you count the one that got interrupted. Do you think that should count as three separate problems? Hm…did I already say I don't like you? Shall I go on?"

Ignoring her comments, he asks, "Ms. O'Neill, Dr. Jackson reports that you experienced a rather traumatic event as a child. It seems that the events of the last few days are directly related to that. Would you like to talk about it?"

Jess sets her jaw, frowning and does not answer.

Dr. Mackenzie looks up at her, asking, "Ms. O'Neill?"

Jess picks up her book and starts to read it again.

This time it's his turn to sigh, "Ms. O'Neill, I can't help you if you won't talk to me."

Jess continues to ignore him.

He writes diligently in his notebook. This time the doctor sighs, "Ok, Ms. O'Neill. I will be by again tomorrow to see if you change your mind."

**A few hours later **

Dr. Mackenzie is seated in General Hammonds office, shuffling through his notes as he says, "In conclusion, I think she's a danger to herself and based on her recent attack on Dr. Jackson, she should be considered a danger to others." Looking up at the General, he adds, "I would go so far as to recommend that Dr. Jackson not be in the same room with her alone."

Hammond nods, looking displeased but says, "I will take your recommendations into consideration. What can we do for the girl in the meantime?

Dr. Mackenzie nods, answering, "I have already prescribed several medications that should keep her mood in check and perhaps make my next session with her a bit more productive."

**_To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!_**


	11. Into The Fire

**_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._**

**At about the same time**

Daniel is roughly pulled out of the trunk of the car he was kept in. Sucking in deep breaths of fresh air, he squints, having lost his glasses at some point, trying to look around and can see he is inside a large warehouse, filled with crates labeled IMPORT - LDB. His hands are tied to his back as he is led towards the rear of the warehouse with a gun pointed at his back. He asks, "Where are you taking me?" and winces as he feels a fist on the back of his head as one of the two men there hits him.

"Shut up." Says the man who did the punching.

"Shutting up." He murmurs, having a good idea of how the rest of his day is going to turn out. Getting a good look at both men that are holding him, he sees that they are non-descript in their appearance. Nothing of note…except for the bad breath that one guy has. Hard to forget, that, he thinks. It's at this point Daniel decides to name them, 'Bad breath guy' and 'Cro-Magnon man.'

Bad breath guy says, "We got him for you."

A third man's voice comes from somewhere behind Daniel, "It's about time. What took you so long?"

Bad breath guy answers, "We wanted to make sure we weren't being followed."

Daniel tries to look around, hoping to catch a good look at the face behind the voice, but doubles over as he is punched in the stomach. Gasping as the breath is knocked out of him, he's pushed to sit in a chair. Catching his breath, Daniel squints, looking at his captors, "Listen…I think there's been a mistake."

Bad breath guy assures him. "There's been no mistake Dr. Jackson. You're not exactly what we wanted, but you'll do."

"What is it that you want?" He asks, licking his lips nervously.

"The girl."

"What girl?" he asks, feigning ignorance.

"Jess O'Neill." Bad breath guy says.

"I have no idea who that is." And his head rocks back as he is backhanded by Cro-Magnon man. Licking his lips again, he tastes blood and sets his jaw, knowing he's in for a long day, as nobody at the SGC would be missing him for hours yet.

"Let's try that again, Dr. Jackson." Bad breath guy asks. "The girl. Is she still being held at the SGC?"

He winces as Cro-Magnon man roughly tightens the bonds that hold his hands behind his back. "I told you. I don't know who you're talking about."

Cro-Magnon man pulls out a knife, holding it right up to Daniel's face, drawing a line though not cutting the flesh as he follows the curve of his jaw with the blade, "Please don't make the mistake of thinking we're stupid. Now, answer the question."

Bad breath guy asks, "There's no point in lying. We know you were there with O'Neill and Teal'c when you took the girl. Is she still at the SGC? Has she been moved?"

Swallowing hard, he answers, "I'd never make the mistake of thinking your stupid. Ugly, yes, but never stupid. And obviously very confused. I don't know what you're talking about." Suddenly, the lights go dim in the room around him as pain explodes in his head.

The voice behind him says, "Enough. Don't damage him too badly. We might be able to setup a trade for the girl, so we'll need him alive. In the meantime, see what you can get out of him."

Head ringing from the punch to his face, he still manages to say, "I'm just an archeologist. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anyone by that name. You've made a mistake." He won't screw this up too. The least he can do is protect Jess from these lunatics.

Looking quickly between the two goons, he says again, "You've made a big mistake." Even as he tries to bend over to protect his stomach as bad breath guy holds him back and Cro-Magnon man uses him as a punching bag.

**Next morning**

Having been released from the infirmary by Dr. Fraiser, Jess is being escorted by Sam to her newly assigned room. On her way there, she pauses at the long hallway leading to the elevators in level 19, frowning as she stares up at the long empty wall.

Sam pauses, watching her for a moment and asks, "Is everything ok?"

Digging her fingers into her cast, she nods, "Yeah…just looking around, is all." And she follows alongside of Sam, trailed by two airmen.

Sam finally leads her into ISO-RM 4, saying, "I hope you like it." Sam gestures around the room. "Teal'c set up the PlayStation for you and brought you some books to read."

Jess looks up at the observation deck and sees another airman watching them. Half smiling she says under her breath, "Like I haven't had enough of that sort of thing to last a lifetime?" and shakes her head taking in the rest of the furnishings, which consists of some shelves lined with various games and toys.

Sam smiles sympathetically, saying, "At least it's not the infirmary."

Jess flashes her a small smile, and takes in the rest of the room. A single bed sits in one corner with a table with two chairs in the center. She goes to check out the contents of the shelves. She reaches for one of the books Sam mentioned Teal'c had brought for her. The first one is titled, "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." She laughs, saying, "How appropriate. I remember watching the movie. It was funny."

Sitting in one of the chairs, Sam asks, "So where'd you learn to curse in Goaul'd?

Bouncing on the bed slightly, Jess answers, "I spent a lot of my time with the Tokra on Free Chulak…I pick stuff up like that pretty quickly. Curse words, that is. It's a hobby." She grins at Sam, explaining, "It's easy when you grow up around all these military guys. After awhile, they'd forget I was around."

Sam laughs, understanding completely. They spend the next while talking, trading military brat stories.

**At the same time**

Darkness surrounds him and it takes him a while before he realizes he's actually awake. The dead giveaway is the dull ache in his belly and he doesn't want to think about what might be broken inside. Groaning softly, he tries to shift from his stomach to his side, finding it difficult as his arms are still tied behind his back. They must know I'm missing by now…it's been long enough, hasn't it? He tries to work out how long he's been here, but he can't get the fuzziness out of his head. It could be a few hours, or a few days…no, not days. Can't be…somebody would've found him by now. That's how it works. Any minute now, somebody's going to come rescue him. Trying to push himself into sitting position, he doubles over as he retches, thinking to himself, "Yeah…a rescue right about now would be great."

**A short while later**

Jess sits on one of the chairs, with her head propped up by her good arm, chin resting in the palm of her hand, staring at three little cups containing a fascinating array of colored pills, all lined up before her. "I'm not taking that."

Sitting across from her, with his head propped up by one arm, chin resting in the palm of his hand is Jack. "You have to take that."

Looking across the table, she meets his gaze for a brief moment, and then stands so suddenly her chair falls with a clatter behind her. "No. I don't!"

Fiddling with one of the cups, Jack shakes his head, saying, "There, see? You're getting angry again. That's why he wants you to take this stuff."

Turning her back to him, she digs her fingers into her cast, saying rather loudly, ""Sorry I have a short fuse. Blame the Irish in me."

Straightening, he runs a hand through his hair, deciding to try a different approach, "Doc says you stopped talking to him."

Jess shrugs as she starts to pace, "He started asking about stuff that wasn't any of his business"

Jack stands, moving over to straighten the fallen chair, saying, "He wants to help you. We all do. We don't want you trying to…"

Stopping, she turns around to look at him, and says adamantly, "I wasn't trying to kill myself."

Tilting his head, Jack gives her an 'I don't believe you' look, and says, "Oh really?"

Turning away, she frowns, shamefaced and finally admits, "Dammit! It's not like I had a lot of options!"

Grabbing a hold of her arm, he turns her around to face him and says firmly, "You didn't have to do it. That sort of thing is never an option"

Staring down at the floor, she says, "Like I was supposed to know you were going to come get me? For crying out loud!" She tries to pull away from his grasp, "You were the one who left me there!".

Not letting her go, he reaches out and takes hold of her chin, lifting her face to meet his and says gently, "You know I didn't have a choice."

She rolls her eyes, lower lip slightly pouting, "Yeah, I know." Lowering her head she admits softly, "Tate was one of them."

"What?"

Crossing her arms over her chest, she says, "In my reality, Tate… was there when they killed my Uncle Daniel."

"Geez!" he says, incredulous.

Shuffling her feet slightly, she says, "Yeah…so…not so great for me, right?"

Pulling her into a hug, he says, "Yeah…geez…I'm sorry"

Closing her eyes, she leans into the hug, but doesn't uncross her arms. Her voice slightly muffled from his jacket, she takes a deep breath and says, "Yeah, I get that a lot. Not your fault."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

Pulling away from Jack, she says, sounding defensive, "There's nothing like being confronted with your demons to bring up some nicely repressed memories." Moving to sit on the edge of the bed, she runs her good hand through her hair, and says, "Jack…if I take those pills…you don't understand what they'll do to me. He's going to make me remember stuff I don't want to remember. I don't think I can come back from it." She shakes her head, saying again, "No. I can deal with this on my own. I have for eight years now."

He sits next to her, "Not doing too good a job with it lately, kiddo."

Giving him a sidelong glance, she asks angrily, "Can you blame me?

Sighing, he says, "No, I suppose not." Before he can say more, he is interrupted by Sam, calling down from the observation deck, "Sir? I need to speak to you."

Jack sighs, standing he looks down at Jess and says, "Duty calls." Calling up to Carter, he says, "I'll be right there." Turning back to Jess he asks, "You going to be all right?'

She nods, "Sure." As Jack walks out of the room, she gets up, takes the pills and dumps them in the trash then goes to lie down on her bed.

Jack makes his way up to the observation Deck where Sam is waiting for him, "What's up Carter?"

Speaking softly, she says, "Sir, it's Daniel. We think he's missing, sir."

Not so softly, Jack asks, "What?!"

"Nobody's seen him since yesterday."

Frowning, he asks, "You sure? You try his house?"

She nods an affirmative, "Yes sir. There's no answer. And he's not picking up on his cell phone either. General Hammond wants you to go check it out."

He nods quickly, "Right...I'll get Teal'c." Frowning slightly he asks, "You stay with Jess?"

Offering him a worried smile, she nods answering, "Yes sir."

"Thanks." And he walks out quickly. "Don't worry. We'll figure out where he is. Probably at the library or something. You know how he can be."

**Outside**

As they drive, O'Neill tries to call Daniel's cell phone and it keeps going to voice mail. He mutters, "You better just be pissed off at me, Daniel."

Teal'c raises an eyebrow at that, and Jack explains, "He didn't look so good yesterday, so I sent him home to get some sleep. I figured he was just laying low because of what had happened with Jess. I may have..been…slightly mad at him at the time though."

"Indeed."

Jack's cell phone rings and it is Hammond, "We're almost at his house, sir. What? Damn. Ok…we'll still go by, just to make sure. Thanks."

"What has transpired, O'Neill?"

"Local police reported they found an abandoned vehicle yesterday afternoon that matches Daniels. We'll go by his house first, then head over to the police station and see what they've got."

"Could it be retaliation for our rescue of Jess O'Neill?"

"I hope not, Teal'c. Nobody but a few higher ups are supposed to know what went down yesterday." O'Neill says.

**Back at the SGC**

Sam types away at her laptop, working on some reports she has due and trying not to worry about Daniel. She looks up as she notices Dr. Mackenzie make his way into the observation deck. "Dr. Mackenzie."

"Major Carter. How is the girl doing?"

"She's been quiet. Taking a nap now, I think."

He smiles, nodding, "Good. That's probably the medication she took."

Sam smiles a bit, "Actually, uh…she hasn't taken anything."

He raises a brow, looking at Sam, "Oh?"

Sam shakes her head, "She was discussing it with the Colonel but they apparently didn't come to a decision about it. One of the airmen in the observation booth told me he saw her throw them out earlier."

Frowning slightly, he says, "I'll be back shortly."

Sam looks up from her writing once more, to see the door to the ISO room open, and Dr. Mackenzie enter with two airmen behind him. She hears him say, "Ms. O'Neill?' and watches as Jess turns her head, opening her eyes to look at him. Doing a dead-pan impression of the Colonel's tone when annoyed, Jess says, drawling out the name, "Dr. Mackenzie."

Jess sits up on her bed, watching the two burly airmen with suspicion, "Got company today?" she asks.

Dr. Mackenzie nods, saying, "We're here to make sure you take your medication."

Carter calls down into the room, "Dr. Mackenzie, what's going on?"

Jess stands, walking to one side of the room, farthest away from Dr. Mackenzie and his goons. She calls out, sounding worried, "Sam!?"

Dr. Mackenzie looks up at Sam, answering, "I'm treating my patient with the medication she needs that will help her get better. Dr. Fraiser has transferred her into my care and I really don't think we need to discuss the issue at the moment."

Cursing, Jess raises both hands, as if warding away the two soldiers approaching her, "No…don't do this." Fighting panic, she pleads, "Please!"

Dr. Mackenzie says reassuringly, "It'll be all right Jess. Just relax. It'll go easier if you don't struggle."

Her back against the wall now, Jess can't tear her gaze away from the needle approaching her. The Doctor cleanses the area quickly and she whimpers softly. She does not resist, instead closes her eyes, wincing slightly as she feels the sharp point press into her arm.

**At the same time**

Daniel feels himself pulled roughly to a standing position as somebody uses his hair as a convenient handle. He groans as he is pushed along, blinking back tears as the sudden brightness stabs painfully into his eyes.

Bad breath guy says, "They're looking for you, Doc. I guess somebody does care after all."

"Now, our friend says we can't hurt you permanent like, because he's going to try and setup a trade. But he does want a lesson to be learned. So, since we're still a few hours away from any of that…we're going to try something new today."

Disoriented, Daniel lets himself be seated in that same chair. It's now when he realizes he can't open one of his eyes completely, as it's been swollen shut. He says, mouth feeling like it's filled with cotton balls, "Don't you guys get it? I don't know anything."

Bad breath guy asks, "What information has the girl told the SGC about her situation?"

Daniel takes a deep breath and releases it slowly through clenched teeth, as the dull ache in his stomach starts to take on a sharper edge, "I don't know what you are talking about."

Bad breath guy says, "Dr. Jackson…we're through playing games." And he nods to Cro-Magnon man. "Do it."

It's then that Daniel sees out of the corner of his good eye as Cro-Magnon man approaches him with something in his hand. Bad breath guy takes a step back. He can hear the tell-tale zap of something electrical coming from Cro-Magnon man's hand.

Bad breath guy says, "You're going to tell us what you know. One way or another."

Blinding pain rips through his chest as Cro-Magnon man touches the Taser at him.

**_To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!_**


	12. Maybe You Can

_**Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.**_

**Author note:** Apologies for the delay in adding more chapters – I got myself stuck on a plot device and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get out of it. I think I've unstuck myself, so I should be adding some more chapters next weekend. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the following. As always, feedback is adored! :)

-Whisper

**At the SGC**

Dr. Mackenzie says assuredly, "See Major Carter? That wasn't so bad, was it?" He gestures for the airmen to help Jess back into her bed. "She'll be feeling the effects very soon. Thank you, gentlemen. Please wait outside."

"Jess?" he asks gently, patting her on the shoulder. "You're going to be just fine." Pulling up a chair, he sits next to her bed, setting the tape recorder on his lap and turning it on. He then gets his notepad ready, and asks gently, "I want you to think back on that time when you were a little girl. Can you tell me what happened to you?"

Jess looks around, appearing disoriented. She sits up in the bed, scratching at the back of her head as she looks around. She timidly calls out, "Uncle Daniel?" and looks around. She does not appear to hear the doctor.

Sam continues to sit in the observation deck, one hand on the telephone as she scowls, watching Dr. Mackenzie work. She debates weather she should call the Colonel or Hammond or somebody, a feeling of outrage building up inside her. She wants to do something, but seeing as how Jess seems to be responding, Sam is reconsidering.

Jess suddenly clutches at her chest, falling to the floor and screams as if in pain.

Dr. Mackenzie almost jumps out of his chair, hearing her shriek. He looks unsure as to what is happening, wondering if she's having a psychotic episode. Eyes wide, he exclaims, "Jess! You need to calm down." As he kneels next to her, trying to see what is wrong.

Jess gasps, crying out "Daniel!!!"

Cursing, Sam reaches for the phone, quickly punching in an extension, muttering, "Damn quack!"

**Back at the Warehouse**

Watching Dr. Jackson regain control of his body, Bad breath guy asks again, "Where is she being kept?"

Disoriented, Daniel thinks he hears his name being called. Confused, he tries to suck in deep breaths to counteract the pain he just experienced and to balance out the pain in his gut that is starting to spread like fire.

They touch the taser to his chest one more time and Daniel loses all sense of everything, unable to focus on anything except for the pain in his body threatening to knock him unconscious.

The men watch as Dr. Jackson's body seizes and he screams in pain. "I think that's enough to get his attention."

A few moments pass as he sits back in the chair, head leaning to one side, panting, moaning the word, "Jess...?"

Bad breath guy gives Cro-Magnon man a knowing look as he says, "Yes, that's the girl. That's her. Where is she being held?"

Daniel shakes his head, groggily saying, "No."

**SGC**

Dr. Fraiser rushes into the ISO room, startled as she takes in the scene before her. Jess lies on the floor, clutching her chest with both arms, screaming, "Tell them! Tell them!!" while Dr. Mackenzie attempts to calm her.

Sam runs into the room behind Fraiser, glaring at Dr. Mackenzie and tells Janet, "I don't know what happened, Dr. Fraiser. He gave her an injection and next thing I know, she's like this." And she gestures helplessly with her hands.

Ignoring Dr. Mackenzie, Janet kneels by Jess, taking her pulse, "What did you give her?" she asks in a no-nonsense and not too pleased tone.

He answers, a bit unsure of himself now, "I gave her a dose of Diazepam. But I don't understand, there was no indication that this should have resulted in a psychotic episode."

"Well, obviously that was a bad call." She gives Mackenzie a disapproving stare and says, "Don't just sit there, help me. I need her to lie on her back." Between the two of them, they manage to get Jess to roll over on her side. Dr. Fraiser checks out Jess' eyes with her pen light, "Jess? Can you hear me?"

"Oh god!" she sobs, holding her stomach tightly. "They're hurting him!"

Dr. Mackenzie asks, "They hurt your uncle Daniel?"

Groaning, she tries to catch her breath, gasping instead, "They're hurting him."

Dr. Mackenzie says, "No Jess. They can't hurt him anymore and they can't hurt you. You're safe now."

Dr. Fraiser continues to check Jess' vitals. Saying, "Sam, please have a med team come up here, stat."

Sam nods, eyes wide as she runs out, giving the orders to the airmen that wait outside.

Curling her body into a ball, Jess shakes her head, sobbing, "Tell them…tell them everything. It doesn't matter." Her voice desperate, she begs, "Daniel, please! Don't let them hurt you!"

**Warehouse**

Bad breath guy touches the taser for a brief instant to Daniel's inner thigh, just as he says, "C'mon doc. You were doing great there just now. Is she still at the SGC?"

Sobbing, as if the words were dragged out of him, "Yes! Yes…"

Bad breath guy asks, "Do they have any plans to move her?"

Daniel nods, breathing heavily, "Yes…"

**SGC**

As the med team arrives, Carter and Janet exchange glances, listening to the one sided conversation Jess seems to be having with Daniel.

To the medics, Fraiser says, "Let's try 3cc's of alpidem." One of the medics nods, starting to prepare it. Dr. Mackenzie helps hold one of Jess's arms as they inject her with the sedative. It acts quickly as her head lolls to one side and she stops struggling, murmuring, "Please Daniel…tell them…" she sobs, "yes…off the base…tell them…" and her voice drifts off as she loses consciousness.

Too late, Carter's eyes open wide, incredulous as a thought occurs. "Oh my God…Janet…I don't think she's been reliving a memory…"

**Warehouse**

This time it's Cro-Magnon man's turn to ask, "Where are they going to move her?"

"Off…off the base." Daniel says through a haze of pain and confusion.

"Off the base to where?" and Daniel's body seizes once again as Cro-Magnon man loses patience and applies the taser. His head falls forward and he loses consciousness.

"Dammit! He's passed out. I told you not to shock him again."

Daniel drifts off, away from the pain but he can't seem to escape the voice inside his head.

**Someplace else**

Daniel looks around, confused and unsure of where he is. The place appears to be a corridor that seems to go on forever. Feeling dizzy, he abruptly sits down, holding his head in his hands as his body starts to shake uncontrollably. Then just as suddenly, he feels warmth surround him and the sensation of having someone lean in close, arms wrapped about him in a hug. Without thinking, he takes in the comfort offered, leaning into the embrace, but only for a moment, before he struggles to stand once again, murmuring to himself, "This isn't real."

He feels a small hand touch his cheek in a familiar gesture as another hand holds his shoulder, keeping him from standing. A soft voice calls out, "No…don't. Don't go back there. It's not safe. Stay here with me."

Groggily, he says, shaking his head, "No..no..can't. Need to go back."

"Don't leave me!" comes the voice, frightened and insistent.

He hesitates, feeling that something is very wrong. He reaches up to touch the hand resting on his shoulder and finds it strangely solid beneath his touch. He looks over to his side and finds himself staring into a too-familiar set of brown eyes. "Jess?" he asks, confused as he reaches out his other hand, touching her face lightly.

She offers him a sad smile, saying, her voice is slightly muffled, "I'm not mad at you anymore."

He can't help a shaky smile in return, as he says, "I'm glad." And they take comfort in each other's presence for a while. Finally breaking the silence, Daniel asks, "Jess…where are we?"

She reaches up a hand and touches his temple, saying, "In here, I think."

"How is that possible?" he asks curiously as he reaches his hand to lightly catch hers in his grasp.

She answers, "I don't know. But it's better here than where you were before, isn't it?" She settles herself next to him, not letting go of his hand as she leans her head against him and he drapes an arm over her shoulder, drawing her close.

He nods, taking a breath, "But how do we get back?"

She shrugs her shoulders a bit and asks, "You want to go back?"

He shudders, closing his eyes as he remembers the warehouse, then feels himself drift away, starting to wake. A whispered, "Don't…." and he snaps his eyes open, looking down at Jess and feels himself grounded now to this place. The pain and fear that for a moment threatened to bring him back to reality recede into the background as Jess says softly, "The walls keep us safe." And Daniel begins to feel just that. He struggles with the feeling, a part of him knowing this isn't right, but another side knowing her words ring true…there's no pain here.

Closing his eyes again, feeling the warmth surrounding him, he thinks to himself, 'This feels too much like giving up.'

Jess says, "You aren't giving up."

"Are you supposed to help me?" He asks quietly.

She answers simply, "I am."

He shakes his head, trying to think, finding himself remembering what's happened…happening to him in that warehouse. Pulling his thoughts away from that, he tries to remember farther back as something nags at his mind…helping…he's supposed to help someone…and a memory is sparked as he turns bright blue eyes towards Jess, remembering now, another conversation in a dream, "You're supposed to help me help some other people."

She nods slowly, lowering her gaze as she says, "Yes. I remember you told me, right before I got mad at you."

"What are we supposed to do?" he asks confused.

"I don't know." She says.

"We need to think." He insists.

"I've been…" she hesitates a moment before saying, "I noticed something today. You don't have a memorial."

"What memorial?" he asks, leaning into her as his body shudders again.

"On level 19, for those that died in the cleansing."

Taking a deep breath, it takes him a moment before he can ask, "What's that?"

"It's why my dad became General. He came back because so few were left after the accident."

"What happened?" he asks.

"An alien device was turned on when it shouldn't've been. I was very little when it happened, but from what my dad told me, it was awful. It killed a lot of people."

"What does the device look like?" he asks.

"I saw pictures of it once. It was a clear cube with some writing on the outside of it. My dad called it a Pandora's box."

"And you were little when it happened?" She nods and he asks, "Maybe about 2 or 3 years old?" She nods again as Daniel does some quick math, "If you had been born here, you'd be about that age now. That's got to be it!" Shifting to face her, he says quickly, "Jess, you need to find Sam and tell her about this."

"No…I don't want to go back." She holds onto his arm tightly, shaking her head.

"Jess, you need to find out if that device is on the base." Feelings of helplessness start to rise up in his thoughts, reminding him of times in the past where he hasn't been able to help, where he couldn't make things right himself. He tells her with urgency in his voice, "People are going to die if you don't."

"No…" she shakes her head again, avoiding his eyes.

Looking at her, he reaches out and cups her face with his hands, lifting until her gaze meets his. He asks gently, pleading, "Please Jess…why did you come to this reality?"

"To find you." She answers, eyes wide and staring into his.

"Through time Jess…why?" he prompts.

She hesitates a moment before answering, "Because I couldn't find you anywhere else but here."

Gently, he asks, "Why do you think that is?"

"Because you weren't there." Her lower lip trembles slightly as she answers. She looks up at him, her heart in her eyes as she says, "Because you were dead."

"You need to go now Jess. It's important." He offers her a small smile as he wipes the tears from her eyes.

"I don't want to leave you." She begs.

Locking gazes with her, he says softly, his voice fading as memories of past failures threaten to overwhelm him. One last time, he asks, "Promise me you'll go back and help them, Jess. For me, because I can't."

She searches his face for a long moment and he can see the fear in her eyes as she considers his words. Voice trembling, she whispers, "I…I promise." She throws her arms around his shoulders, burying her head in his neck as she holds him tightly. He holds her close before telling her, "Go…"

**SGC**

Lying in the infirmary, Jess stirs, opening her eyes and blinking away the dryness. She looks around blearily, asking, "Sam? Are you here?"

Doctor Fraiser approaches her bedside, her face filled with concern, "You gave us all a scare, young lady."

Looking up at Dr. Fraiser, Jess asks once more, "Where's Sam? Daniel says I need to talk to her."

Looking across the bed for a moment, Fraiser says gently, "I'm sorry Jess, but Daniel isn't here."

Another voice at her side says gently, "It's ok, Jess. I'm here. What does Daniel want me to know?"

Jess tries to sit up, "He…we think the Pandora 's Box is here."

Sam blinks, appearing unsure as she looks over to Dr. Fraiser, "What do you mean?"

Jess tries to sit up, managing only to prop herself up on one arm as she looks at Sam, "It's an alien device…looks like a clear plastic cube…"

Sam prompts gently, "Jess…can you talk to Daniel now?"

Jess shakes her head, her voice sounding more sure as she speaks, "I…he made me promise to help…we need to hurry. Is it here?"

General Hammond's voice can be heard, "Major Carter. We do have something matching that description that arrived from off world the day before yesterday. Dr. Lee is working on figuring out what it is."

Jess's eyes go wide as she turns to General Hammond, "We have to get rid of it."

Hammond looks between Sam and the girl, saying, "Well, we can take precautions against it. I'll order it to be placed in a secure area." And he turns to the phone.

Jess tries again to sit up, this time more successfully, "You don't understand…it's going to kill everybody. It happened in my reality. I think it happened here…Daniel was dead…see? That's why I came here, to this time. I couldn't find him!" she shakes her head as if trying to clear it, insisting again, "It's going to happen here."

Jess tries to pull herself out of the bed, finding Dr. Fraiser putting a restraining hand on her arm. She turns a steady gaze to Fraiser, saying softly, "Please…I promised Daniel." Fraiser finds herself startled at the look on Jess' face, having seen the same steady gaze from Colonel O'Neill when he's had occasion to feel strongly about something. Jess asks, voiced with a hint of desperation, "Show me where it is. I'll need to see it, to be sure."

Sam shoots Hammond a query, and he nods, "Assuming it's all right with the doctor, you can go."

Fraiser hesitates a moment before saying, "She's good to go, Sir."

Between the two of them, they help Jess get out of bed and Sam walks with her to the base's labs, somewhat surprised that Jess seems to know the way already.

As they walk, Sam asks gently, "Jess…what about Daniel? Is he ok? Do you know where he is?"

Jess lets out a small whimper, saying softly, "I can't…I can't be with him and here at the same time. I can't…he says I need to do this for him."

Giving her arm a light squeeze, Sam says, "It's ok…". As they approach the lab area they find Doctor Lee sitting hunched over a work table wearing goggles. He has some electronic devices in his hands, as he works on something. He looks up as they enter the room.

Gently Sam asks, "Is that it?"

Somewhat glassy eyed, Jess looks at the stuff on the table. It takes her a moment to bring the item into focus before she nods several times, "Yes, that's it…but…it's not supposed to have any color to it."

Straightening, Lee says, "Well, I think I might have turned it on. It's pretty interesting actually. I touched it with some electric impulses, and it went from clear to white. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get it to go back to clear."

Taking a step back as if loosing her balance, Jess says, "Sam…it's going to kill everybody."

Carter approaches the cube, checking out sensor readings coming from it, "Doctor Lee, can you turn it off?"

He shakes his head, "I'm not sure how to, Major Carter."

Reaching a hand for it, Jess says, "There's no time."

Sam moves to block her, but is too late, "Jess! Don't touch that."

Looking up at Sam as she holds the cube in her hands, "It's ok Sam, I got it. Can we send it through the Stargate?"

Eyes wide, Sam nods. She supports Jess, making their way to the Gateroom as quickly as they can. "We'll dial PX-342 and send the box there. It's a dead planet so it shouldn't hurt anyone. How long do you think we have?"

Jess clutches her stomach, groaning, "I don't know…"

Concerned, Sam asks, "Jess, are you all right?"

She nods, panting slightly as she holds the cube tightly in her arms, using the cast on her wrist to balance the bottom of the cube. "Hurry."

As they near the gateroom, General Hammond stands waiting for them, "Major, is that the device?"

Pausing at the door, she says, "Dr. Lee activated it, Sir. We don't know how much time we have, but I think it'll be safest if we send it to PX-342 and figure out the details later."

Hammond nods as he moves to assist Sam when Jess starts to sway. He reaches for the box, but Jess refuses, "No…don't touch it. I don't think that's a good idea."

"I got her Major. Get to dialing." He orders Carter.

Several airmen wearing hazmat suits arrive just behind them, as Hammond helps Jess into the gate room.

She pauses, looking down at the box in her arms, gasping for breath, "It burns!"

Hammond says urgently, "Young lady…these men are wearing special suits that should protect them from whatever is being emitted from that device. It's ok to let them take it now."

She shakes her head, staring up at the gate, watching the dialing sequence progress. Too slow…it's too slow and the box in her arms is burning…"No time."

Gesturing for the airmen to approach, Hammond asks, "What?"

Jess stands, focused on the gate, saying softly, "LDB Imports…" and she breaks from Hammonds grasp to run up to the gate. The event horizon forms before the dialing sequence completes and as she tosses the cube through and there is a sudden power surge. She throws her arms up, as if protecting her face and just as suddenly, the gate shuts down. She takes a few steps back, lowering her arms to her sides. She turns around to see Hammond and the airmen right behind her. She looks up at Hammond, offers him a smile and collapses.

**_To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!!_**


	13. A Rescue

_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._

**Author note:** Once again, I apologize for the delay in adding more chapters. The muse and I have been arguing too much lately, but I think I finally got the upper hand. I hope you enjoy the latest installment.

As always, feedback is adored:)

Whisper

**Outside the SGC**

Sitting inside Daniel's jeep, Jack leans over and picks up a pair of glasses. Gingerly grabbing them by the edges, he murmurs, "Maybe these are just a spare pair." Fighting back the urge to worry, he sighs and sets them on the passenger seat. He leans over to open the glove compartment, hoping to find some clue of Daniel's whereabouts.

ring tone

Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out his cell phone. "O'Neill here. Hey Carter. Heard anything?" he pauses slightly and then asks, "Warehouse district? Yeah, hang on." He reaches into the glove compartment, smiling as he finds some notepads and pens, knowing Daniel always has something nearby to write on and with. "Dammit…Yeah, got that. Where'd you get the intel from? Hey…you ok?" He pauses, then says, "All right. You can fill me in when we get back."

He steps out of the jeep and looks over to Teal'c, "Carter thinks she knows where Daniel is." They quickly make their way back towards their vehicle.

Teal'c asks, "Should we not inform the local authorities?"

"No…they'd just get in the way. Hammond is sending in some of our boys." Jack hangs on for dear life as Teal'c steps on the gas, peeling out of the tow truck company's storage lot. "Hey there T…you been watching too many movies. I'd like for us to be able to actually find Daniel and not end up a statistic."

Teal'c replies, "I am merely minimizing the time it will take us to arrive."

"You just want to get there first."

Teal'c says nothing but one side of his mouth twitches slightly upwards as he takes another sharp turn, causing O'Neill to curse as he slides over to one side. Jack quickly reaches up to put his seatbelt on.

They arrive at the warehouse, finding it rather easily as the words 'LDB IMPORTS' is emblazoned on one side of the building. The warehouse does not seem to be abandoned as there are trucks parked outside, but it seems closed for the weekend. Teal'c drives past, pulling into a parking lot two buildings over. They both get out and walk towards the warehouse in question.

O'Neill gestures and they head towards the back of the warehouse, towards the loading bays. Finding a door, he tries to open it and is surprised to find it unlocked. Taking his weapon out and tucking into the back of his pants, he opens the door, takes a quick look inside and steps in, whispering, "Looks like no one's home."

Teal'c follows behind, also pulling out a weapon, a Zat-gun. Gesturing with his hands, O'Neill moves towards the left side of the building with Teal'c covering his flank as they perform a sweep of the area. They make their way towards the rear of the warehouse where Teal'c is first to notice a table with an overturned chair, tucked into a corner where there are crates piled high, all labeled LDB IMPORTS. Pulling out his gun, O'Neill walks over, frowning as he sees drops of dried blood on the chair and surrounding floor.

Whispering, Teal'c says, "O'Neill." And points to a blood trail leading towards another door set in an interior wall.

O'Neill nods, looking around carefully before making his way to the door. Reaching it, he sees it's locked. Teal'c takes the Zat and shoots the lock, kicking at it and it falls away immediately. Opening the door, they find the room beyond is very dark, but the telltale smell of blood and bile and other things best left unmentioned tell them they have found, if not Daniel, something, at least.

Taking a quick breath, O'Neill holds his gun out as he steps into the room, light filtering in as Teal'c holds the door open and they can both see in one corner of the small storage room, Daniel lying curled up on his side with his back facing the door.

The moment is frozen as O'Neill takes in the sight before him. He starts to shake his head as if denying what he sees. The moment is gone and O'Neill hardens his features as he quickly moves to Daniel's side, "Crap! Daniel? Can you hear me?". Tucking his gun away, he kneels beside him, cursing again as he sees the bruises forming on Daniel's face. He reaches out to feel for a pulse, finding it weak and his skin cool and clammy. He murmurs, "Who did this to you?" Gently he attempts to roll Daniel onto his back, and receives a groan in return as Daniel holds his stomach protectively. He says reassuringly, "Don't worry, help is on the way." and he takes off his jacket, covering Daniel with it.

"O'Neill, how is Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asks from the doorway, concern evident in his voice.

"He's alive, but I'm not altogether sure we should move him. I think he's in shock. Where the hell is our backup?" as he reaches into his pocket to pull out his cell phone.

"I shall continue the search of the building to assure there is no one else here."

Seeing a shadow cross Teal'cs back, Jack yells, "Down!" Immediately, the hand that was going for the cell phone reaches around and O'Neill pulls out his weapon.

In the same instant, Teal'c drops as a gunshot rings out and O'Neill returns fire. Rolling to one side, Teal'c pulls out his weapon and Zats the assailant, who drops with a grunt of pain. Weapons held at the ready, both Teal'c and O'Neill approach the downed man.

Teal'c uses a foot to turn him over, so they can get a good look at his face, "Do you recognize this man?'

O'Neill shakes his head, resisting the urge to aim a kick at the guys head. Taking in his close cropped hair cut and overall look, he says, "No. He might be ex-military though – we should have him in the base computers if he is. Go ahead and check out the rest of the building, I'll stay here."

Teal'c tilts his head in a nod as he walks away, weapon held to the ready.

Jack returns to Daniel, trying to see if he can get him to wake up, "Daniel, c'mon, talk to me here."

Teal'c retraces his steps back in the direction they came, passing the door they used to enter the building. He makes his way towards the front of the building, carefully looking into empty offices in search of more of the enemy. Hearing a noise behind him, he twists quickly, ready to fire, then just as suddenly lifts both arms, as he sees it is the promised backup from the SGC. Teal'c calls out, "We require immediate medical assistance. Daniel Jackson has been injured. Come with me." And he leads them back to where he left his friends.

One of the airmen nods, talking into his radio and almost as quickly, two men come in, pushing a gurney between them as they make their way to Daniel's prone form.

Watching as they tend to the still unconscious Daniel, O'Neill moves over to stand by Teal'c, frowning, concern plain on his face. As the EMT's prepare to move Daniel, Jack tells them, "Careful…I think he's got some broken ribs."

The EMT nods, replying, "Yes sir. We're immobilizing him in case he has further internal injuries. Has he spoken since you found him?"

O'Neill shakes his head, running a hand through his hair as he watches them work. He turns then to the other soldiers who have taken the still unconscious assailant into custody. Voice hardened, he tells them, "Bring him to the SGC – I want to question him myself. Teal'c, I'm going to ride with Daniel. See you back on base."

In the ambulance, the EMT reports back to one of the doctors that Daniel has several cracked ribs and possible internal bleeding. O'Neill watches silently as the EMT's work to further stabilize Daniel, staring at his friends bruised face, his own reflecting barely suppressed anger at what has been done. They arrive at the SGC, where Daniel is whisked away with O'Neill following close behind.

In the infirmary, O'Neill wonders where Dr. Fraiser is, but is distracted as the doctors begin their work. Pacing, he looks towards the room where Daniel is being prepped for surgery, thoughts dark as he waits for news. Teal'c arrives shortly after, speaking in quiet tones with the Colonel.

Jack tells him, "I don't know yet. They say he's stable though, so I guess that's a good thing. Go find Carter. Let her know what's going on."

Teal'c nods, saying, "I will inform her of Daniel Jackson's condition."

As Teal'c walks away, Hammond enters the infirmary, pausing for a moment at the entrance before making his way towards O'Neill. "Good job finding our boy, Colonel." Hammond asks, "Any idea what happened to him?"

Jack rubs his face with his hands, frowning slightly as he says, "Aside from the fact that somebody beat the crap out of him, Sir, I don't know. But we did catch one of the bastards that did this to him, so we should know more when I can question him."

Hammond nods, looking pensive before saying, "Colonel, I just received word…the Pentagon has requested SG1 have further no involvement in the investigation."

Jack's eyes go wide, brows going up as he says, exasperated, "What? General, that rat bastard beat the living shit out of Daniel or at the very least he knows who did it. If you expect me to do my job and protect my team, you need to let me be involved in that investigation."

Hammond nods, lowering his voice slightly as he says, "I understand how you feel. I'm not exactly thrilled with this new development, but the Pentagon feels SG1 is too closely involved with the situation to be objective."

Jack turns a steady gaze at Hammond, asking, "Do you think this has anything to do with Jess and that little kidnapping plot we stopped?"

Hammond nods slightly, saying, "I'd lay odds on it."

Jack frowns again, watching absently as an airman, Siler, is led to a bed, holding a hand up to his head. Turning again to Hammond, O'Neill asks, "How did the Pentagon find out so fast, anyway?"

Hammond shrugs slightly, appearing displeased, "I don't know. But I intend to find out."

Shaking his head, O'Neill asks, "How did we get the intel on Daniel's location? Carter wasn't too clear on that."

Hammond gives O'Neill an odd look before saying, "Actually, it was Jess who gave us the name of the warehouse you found him in."

O'Neill raises a brow, asking, "How did she know?"

Hammond sighs, about to answer when Sam comes rushing into view. Slightly breathless, she asks, "Sirs…Daniel?"

O'Neill tells her, "Carter. We'll know more when he's out of surgery. What happened to you?" he asks, taking in her flushed cheeks.

Eyes slightly downcast, she takes a few deep breaths, trying to steady her breathing, "Ah….it's been a long day. Actually, Dr. Fraiser wants you in ISO RM 4 as soon as possible, sir."

O'Neill blinks, then nods once. Swallowing an expletive, he says instead, "Let me know when he's out of surgery, ok?"

Sam says, "I will, Sir." As O'Neill walks out of the infirmary, she shares a look with Hammond.

**To be continued - Feedback will be appreciated!**


	14. Repercussions

_Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse._

**_Warnings: Some mild profanity in this one. Sorry folks_.**

**ISO RM 4**

As Jack approaches the infirmary, he hears a commotion and he groans, already knowing what to expect. He wonders if this is what it's going to be like whenever he leaves Jess alone for more than a few hours. Taking a deep breath, he thinks to himself, 'Here we go again.' Still angry over the condition he found Daniel in, he steals himself as he's called once again to calm a situation that seems to be out of control.

Entering the room he sees Jess sitting atop the bed, back propped up with a pillow, shouting at Dr. Fraiser. "Get that away from me!"

Dr. Fraiser holds her hands up in a placating gesture, talking softly, "Jess, you need to control yourself, or…"

Jess cuts her off, voice sounding shaky, "Or what? Going to sick Mackenzie and his goons on me again?"

O'Neill raises a brow, caught off guard for a moment at hearing Jess' words. "Ah…excuse me, but would somebody mind telling me what the hell is going on here?"

Jess swallows hard, eyes going to Jack and narrowing slightly. "Tell her to leave me alone."

Shaking his head, face clearly showing his displeasure, Jack makes a move towards Jess, "Oh, for crying out loud! Doc, you want me to hold her down for you?"

Fraiser shakes her head, holding a hand up to stop him, "No, sir, that won't be necessary. How is Daniel?"

"He's in surgery now." He answers, frowning slightly as he notices that Jess' cast is gone, replaced by a wrist brace but now both her hands are bandaged.

Fraiser's eyes betray her concern as she quickly looks over to Jack. Nodding she says, "Well then, sir, I'm going to go check and see how he's doing. In the meantime, please see if you can get her to take these." Turning to look at Jess, she says, "No needles, ok? Just these pills. They're antibiotics and a mild pain killer. I know those burns must hurt and these will help." Turning once again, she deposits a small cup in O'Neill's hands, saying softly, "Go easy on her, sir. She's had a rough few hours."

As the doctor leaves the room, Jess wearily lets her head fall back. She draws her legs up, gingerly resting her hands on her lap, careful of the bandages.

Jack sighs. Taking in her pallid features, he asks, trying to take the annoyance out of his tone, "What happened?"

Turning bloodshot eyes at him, she stares for a moment before asking, "Did you really find Daniel?"

He nods, "Yes." Curiosity getting the best of him, he asks, "Hammond says you told us where to find him…how?"

Behind him the door opens as someone declares, "I'd like to know the answer to that myself."

Crushing the tiny cup in his hand, Jack turns to see Major Tate standing in the doorway.

Tate smiles, saying, "Colonel O'Neill. It's been a long time, sir."

Not bothering to hide the contempt in his voice, O'Neill says, "Major Tate, it's never long enough. What brings you here?"

Tate's gaze flickers towards Jess where she lays in the bed, before settling back on the Colonel. "I wanted to be sure she hasn't sustained any…permanent…damage." He finishes the sentence with a slow smile.

His back turned to her, Jack does not see as Jess shrinks back into her bed, eyes wide and haunted as she stares at Tate.

Tate continues, "I also heard about what happened to Dr. Jackson. Maybe you should consider sending him to some self defense classes." Clearing his throat, he adds, "Good call catching the bad guy Colonel. Must've really made your day."

Taking a deep breath and biting back the urge to take a swing at the man, O'Neill manages to say, "I fail to see the point of this conversation so far, Tate."

Tate smiles, walking now to stand next to O'Neill. "I thought you should know that the Pentagon has turned down your petition to gain custody of young Ms. O'Neill here. Just as soon as General Hammond and Dr. Fraiser sign the release papers, I'll be escorting her back to Peterson. I thought it would be nice to tell her the good news, personally."

His face carefully expressionless, O'Neill says, "Get the hell out of here, Major."

Tate walks to the foot of the bed, reaching out to take a quick look at the medical chart and says, "With all due respect sir, the events of the last few hours at the SGC have convinced the Pentagon that keeping her here is not in her best interest. They don't want to risk her well being."

Jack says, "Tate, the only one here who's proven to be a detriment to her safety has been you. Need I remind you what almost happened while on your watch?"

Tate clears his throat, saying, "That is debatable sir, but not relevant. Nonetheless, I do have a meeting with General Hammond to discuss transfer procedures. If I may." He nods slightly, heading towards the exit, "Jess…it'll be good working with you again." And steps out of the room.

Jack sighs, shaking his head. Looking down at Jess, he can see she is blinking furiously, fighting back tears. He says softly, "I'm sorry you had to hear that. And don't worry about what he said…there's no way you're going anywhere with him again, ok? I promise you that."

Taking several deep breaths, it takes her a few moments before she murmurs, "…promise…". And then is able to look up at Jack, a faint smile on her lips, despite the tears brimming in her eyes, "Is Daniel going to be ok?"

Jack nods, reassuring her with his words, "Yeah…yeah, he will be." His thoughts turn to his injured friend as he says, "Listen, I've got a few things to do. I'm going to have Teal'c come up and stay with you until I can come back. You take your medicine." And he reaches out to hand her the tiny, now crushed, cup.

She nods, sighing wearily, "In a bit…I…I'm not feeling so good. I think I'll try and sleep now." Settling the cup in the table next to her bed, he moves to the phone to make a call, running a hand through his hair.

**Hammonds Office**

After having come from the infirmary to check up on Daniel, O'Neill finds himself in Hammond's office. The General looks up from the paperwork on his desk, waving O'Neill into the room, asking, "How is Dr. Jackson?"

Settling himself down on a chair, O'Neill replies, "The surgery went very well sir. He's in recovery now and they're hoping he'll regain consciousness soon." He pauses before adding, "Sir…Dr. Fraiser says it looks like he was tortured."

Lowering his gaze for a moment, Hammond takes a deep breath before saying, "The important thing is that you found him and he's alive. We need to focus on that. Once he's regained his physical strength, well, we can deal with the rest as it comes."

O'Neill nods, "Yes sir."

He then asks, "And how did it go with Jess?"

Shrugging slightly, he says, "She's settled, for now. Have you met with Major Tate yet?" he leaves the question open.

Hammond nods, saying, "I've told him that Dr. Fraiser has requested Jess be kept under observation for the next 48 hours." He pauses a moment before adding, "Jack, I think you should also know that serious questions have been raised in regards to her mental stability, more than just our initial concerns over her suicide attempt."

Fiddling with the arm of the chair, O'Neill says, "Well Sir, there's no denying she's been through a lot. I don't know that any one of us wouldn't act a bit…loopy, placed in the same situation." He turns to look up at the door, seeing Carter pause at the entrance. She offers a tiny smile, turning to look at Hammond, saying, "Sir, you wanted to see me?"

Hammond nods, gesturing to the other chair in the office, "Yes. Have a seat, Major." He turns back to O'Neill, continuing the conversation, "It's Dr. Mackenzie's opinion she is exhibiting symptoms of psychotic behavior. He, Major Carter, Dr. Fraiser and several other SGC staff witnessed her having what appeared to be a full blown hallucination earlier today."

O'Neill makes a face, shaking his head and holds up his hands, "Wait a minute…since I got here, nobody has given me a straight answer. Just what the hell happened while I was out looking for Daniel?"

Cater looks at Hammond, and seeing his unspoken go ahead, she says, "Sir, after you left, Dr. Mackenzie came to see Jess. He injected her with some kind of drug." Giving O'Neill an apologetic glance, she continues, "Things went downhill from there, sir."

O'Neill stares at Carter as she continues, "She…she started screaming, calling out for Daniel. By the time Dr. Fraiser got there, Jess was begging Daniel to tell them anything they wanted to know." Looking distressed, she continues, "Sir…they really were hurting Daniel and I don't know how, but she knew. She knew about the Pandora's box and told us where we could find Daniel. I don't see how that could have been a hallucination."

Jack asks, "Pandora's box…?"

Sam nods, saying, "Yes, that's an alien device we found on P2X-151. She told us Daniel wanted her to help us find it. She said it was going to kill everybody."

Jack raises a brow, "Is that what burned her hands?"

Sam nods, "Yes sir. She made a grab for it before I could stop her…she…sir, she seemed to know what she was doing. She said we should get rid of it through the Stargate."

Jack asks, "And..?"

Sam shakes herself out of a thought, "Oh, and she did sir."

Hammond asks, "Major Carter, did you finish that analysis?"

Carter nods, saying, "Yes sir. And yes, we were right. The Stargate established an outgoing wormhole before the computer finished its dialing sequence."

Hammond frowns slightly, asking, "Have you been able to determine how this happened?"

Carter shakes her head, shrugging slightly, "No sir…maybe the alien device did it somehow. Or maybe Shifu?"

Listening in disbelief, O'Neill turns to Hammond, asking, "And Mackenzie still thinks she's…" he gestures with his fingers, "…crazy?"

Hammond clears his throat, nodding as he says, "In his opinion, she is mentally unstable."

Jack asks, "What do you think, sir?"

Hammond takes a moment before answering, "I've seen too many things during my time here to agree with him, Jack. She told me the name of that warehouse you found Daniel in and I saw the burns on her hands. I can only imagine what might have happened if she hadn't told us about that device." He sits back in his chair, folding his hands on his desk saying, "That girl may be many things, but…crazy…isn't one of them."

Carter adds, "Sir…I also got those phone records you requested." And hands him the file she has in her hands. "I took the liberty of highlighting a few of the more unusual calls. I think we might have a good lead on who our leak is."

Hammond nods as the phone rings. Picking up the receiver, he says, "Hammond here." Listening for a moment, he nods, saying, "We'll be right over." He turns to look at O'Neill, saying, "Colonel…Dr. Fraiser is requesting our presence in ISO RM 4."

Jack rolls his eyes, as he stands, saying, "Oh, for crying out loud. What now?"

**Next day**

Daniel opens his eyes, blinking several times to clear his sight. Seeing the too familiar concrete ceiling above him, he knows where he is, though at the moment he's not sure why. Turning his head, he sees Sam dozing in a chair. He tries to speak but it comes out a croak. Clearing his throat, he tries again, "Sam?"

Sam's eyes snap open as she sits up, eyes focusing on Daniel as she smiles, looking relieved, "Daniel." Standing, she moves to stand next to him, reaching a hand out to lightly touch his hair, "I'm glad you're finally awake."

He lifts a hand to his head, frowning slightly, "What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

He tries to sit up, then groans softly as he feels something pull in his stomach…stitches? "Uh…mission go bad?"

"No…." she says as she pours a glass of water for him, helping him lift his head to drink.

He smiles a thank you, as he thinks, finally asking "Car accident?" She shakes her head again and he protests, "C'mon Sam, going to make me play twenty questions?"

"I'm sorry Daniel…you've been out for awhile and Janet said she wanted to know how much you could remember on your own.". Watching him squint at her, she reaches for something then hands him his glasses.

"Oh…I see." He closes his eyes as he gingerly pulls his glasses on. "Thanks."

Running her hand lightly through his hair again, she says, "You had us all worried."

He closes his eyes as tries to remember what happened. Sam looks up as Jack and Teal'c enter the infirmary. She offers them small smile, but looks away as she sees the haggard expression on O'Neill's face. She says, "Hey Daniel, you've got some more company."

Daniel opens his eyes, looking at his friends and smiles, "Hi guys.

"It is good to see you awake, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c says as he moves to stand next to the bed, opposite of Sam's position.

Standing at the foot of the bed, Jack says, "Hey Daniel. How're you doing?"

"Um…ok, I guess. Sam won't tell me what happened." He tries to sit up, but Sam puts a hand on his chest, holding him back as she works the controls on the bed, raising the back. Taking a pillow from the next bed over, she tucks it in his side, helping to support him.

Daniel smiles a thank you even as Teal'c asks, "Do you not remember the circumstances of your capture?"

Licking a cut on his lower lip, Daniel glances over at Teal'c, wincing slightly as he begins to probe his abdomen lightly with one hand. He asks, "Captured? I was captured…um…" He closes his eyes trying to think, "There was a car accident…I got rear-ended. Uh…Jess was mad at me and I got rear ended…no, wait…oh…shit…" he places the flat of his hand on his stomach, grimacing in pain. He looks around, startled, "How did you guys find me?"

"We had some help, actually. Do you remember anything else?" Sam says.

He nods, leaning back against his bed, wiggling a bit trying to get into a more comfortable position, "Yeah…there were these two guys…no, there were three of them. They…uh…they wanted to know where she was, what she'd told us…" Closing his eyes, he swallows hard, fighting down bile that tries to rise from his throat as memory returns…

Sam rubs his shoulder gently, saying quietly, "It's ok…"

Holding his head with both hands, he tries to remember. "They wanted to trade me for her." Eyes wide and slightly wild, he looks up at Jack, saying, "God Jack…you can't let them anywhere near her."

Not able to meet Daniel's gaze, Jack says softly, "I wouldn't worry about it."

Sam asks gently, "But Daniel, if all they wanted was a trade," and there's a slight hitch to her voice as she finishes, "why do this to you?"

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he answers quietly, "They wanted a lesson to be learned."

Sam reaches a hand to stroke his arm reassuringly as she says, "It's ok Daniel. What else do you remember?" she asks, glancing at O'Neill.

Removing his glasses, Daniel blinks a few times before closing his eyes again, taking another deep breath. Gingerly touching the stitches above his eye, he says, a rueful smile playing on his lips, "I…uh…I had the weirdest dream…" His thoughts linger on the memory, feelings of comfort and safety playing on the edges of his consciousness, bringing a moment of absolute clarity. And that moment is enough to cause the muscles in his stomach to tighten as he remembers, "The Pandora's box…Sam! Is it here? Did you find it? It's going to kill everyone." And he struggles to sit up.

Holding onto his arm, Sam offers a reassuring squeeze as she says, "Yes Daniel. We found it. It's ok. We're safe."

Daniel looks up at Sam as he asks, "Jess…Jess told you?"

Sam nods.

A tired laugh escapes his lips as he lays back down, relief showing clearly on his face "So it wasn't a dream?"

Jack says quietly, "No, it was real."

Visibly relaxing, Daniel starts to tell them of his experience, "It was the most amazing thing Jack. It was like, I could talk and move around but I wasn't where my body was and Jess was there, though I have no idea how that could be." He looks between each of his friends as he speaks, clearly excited. "But we got to talking and figured out what Shifu warned me about."

"Like an out of body experience?" Sam prompts.

"Yeah, I guess. Wow…that was something else. Hey, think Jess can come and visit me for a while? I'd really like to talk to her about it. Just think! If she can do something like reach out to me…I guess she must have done it telepathically somehow, but anyway, the point is there's no reason to think she couldn't reach out and talk to ascended beings the same way."

Jack cuts him off, "That's not going to be possible, Daniel."

Daniel gives Jack a rather sheepish look as he tries to explain, "Look, Jack. I know what happened before but believe me, she's not mad at me anymore. She told me! Didn't she tell you?" Surprised to find himself sweating, he wipes his brow and adds, "God...she must be worried sick. She was so scared. She knows I'm ok, right?"

Jack stares at his friend for a moment, expression unreadable before he looks away. Mumbling something unintelligible, he turns on his heal and walks out of the infirmary.

Teal'c looks after O'Neill before resting a hand on Daniel's leg, saying "I am sorry, Daniel Jackson. I will come back to see you this evening." And he follows after his friend.

Stunned, Daniel calls after O'Neill, "Jack! Wait…what's wrong?"

Feeling Sam's grip tighten on his arm, he looks at her surprised, "What's going on, Sam?"

Hesitantly, Sam says, "Daniel, I…I'll come back later. You should get some sleep."

Concerned, Daniel asks quietly, "Sam, tell me, please…what's happened?"

Looking first in the direction where O'Neill walked out, she then looks at Daniel and sighs softly. Blinking back sudden tears, she answers, "It's Jess…something happened."

**_To be continued - Feedback is adored!_**


	15. Promises

Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.

**Warnings: There's some very strong imagery coming up in this chapter that involves violence, a major character death including some child abuse. And there's more cursing in this one. Sorry about that, folks.**

**A few hours later**

Jack walks into the infirmary, hands stuffed into his pockets as he heads over to Daniel's bed. He stands there, watching his friend as he sleeps, noticing the bruises on his pale face starting to turn yellow around the edges. Listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor attached to Daniel, his thoughts drift back to the events that occurred yesterday, at the summons of Dr. Fraiser.

_Jack walks into the ISO room, surprised at the whirlwind of activity. "What's going on Doc?" He nods a greeting at a solemn looking Teal'c who stands at the entrance of the room._

_Holding a chart in her hands, Fraiser looks up, sighing as she orders another test from one of the nurses. "Colonel…when you left her, how did she seem to you?"_

"_A bit cranky. Tired. What's happened?" he asks again, trying to see behind her._

_Moving to one side, Fraiser gestures for them to enter the room, "Sir, Teal'c called one of the nurses because he noticed she had become unresponsive. We're monitoring her closely because her blood pressure is dangerously low and unfortunately, all her blood work is showing signs of multiple organ failure. We've put her on ventilator as a precaution, in the hopes her oxygen levels would improve."_

_O'Neill says in disbelief, "But she was fine…she was talking to me just a little while ago. God, she was yelling at you…she was fine."_

_Fraiser looks at O'Neill, compassion in her voice as she says, "At this point Sir, I have to assume the alien device she came into contact with caused more damage than was apparent at first. Something it did besides the obvious burns on her arms and abdomen."_

_Coming up from behind O'Neill, Hammond asks, "Doctor, what is her prognosis?"_

_Fraiser makes a notation in the chart, saying, "It's hard to say sir, but if she doesn't start to show signs of improvement within the next 6-8 hours…"_

_Jack asks hopefully, "But she's going to pull through, right?"_

_Fraiser answers with a gentle, "I don't know, sir."_

_Jack is silent as he walks over to stare down at Jess, taking in the various tubes and wires attached to the still girl. Unbidden, a memory comes of another child lying in a hospital bed, tubes and wires attached in much the same manner…Charlie. Jack closes his eyes, willing the memory away as he focuses on the sounds of the heart monitor, slowly lowering his head into his hands._

Lost in the memory, O'Neill doesn't notice Daniel waking up. He's startled out of his thoughts as he hears a softly spoken, "Hi Jack."

Dragging a smile out of somewhere, he says, "Oh, hey Daniel. Sorry about walking out earlier…"

Shifting slightly in his bed, Daniel murmurs, "It's ok." Fingering the cut on his lower lip, he frowns before adding hesitantly, "Sam told me what happened…I…I'm so sorry."

"Hey…yeah, well." Jack shrugs, moving to sit down on the chair next to Daniel's bed. Changing the subject, he asks, "How're you feeling?"

Daniel shifts again, trying to get comfortable, "I'll live." Taking in his friends tired face, he asks, "How're you doing?"

Jack shrugs his shoulders again, no longer looking at Daniel as he answers, "Oh, you know me. I'm just peachy." He asks, "So, feel up to talking about what happened in that warehouse?" and he reaches out to grab a blue, plastic medical instrument, fiddling with the flexible mouthpiece.

Daniel leans over, stifling a groan as he reaches to get his glasses, grabbing them and settling them on his face, finally saying, "I uh…thought you weren't supposed to investigate this."

Jack answers, flipping the plastic device upside-down, "I'm not investigating anything…I'm just curious."

Daniel gives him a look, asking, "Just curious?"

Jack shrugs a bit, nodding, "Yeah."

Daniel takes off his glasses, gingerly pinching the bridge of his nose before answering, "Uh…ok, then. Sam said you caught one of them."

Jack nods as he taps the plastic device on his knee, causing the ball inside it to bounce around, saying, "Tall, short dark hair. Goes by the name of Roger Smith."

"Bad breath?" Daniel asks.

Jack chuckles, though there's no real humor in the sound, "Yeah…notice that, did you?"

Daniel makes a bit of a face, replacing his glasses and peers up at Jack from above the rims, "Kinda hard not to."

The mouthpiece of the plastic device comes apart in his hands suddenly and Jack quickly puts it back on the table, saying, "Yeah, right. So anyway…"

Daniel interrupts, "Jack… I keep replaying what happened and I can't figure out how to make it right… I wish there had been another way." He swallows past a lump in his throat and admits, "God Jack…I made her promise to help."

Jack sighs, leaning back into his chair and gestures vaguely with one hand, "Daniel, nobody made her grab hold of that box. She decided to do that on her own, ok?"

Sounding distressed, Daniel says, "I know. It's just… if I had known what could happen…Dammit …Shifu brought her to me. She was my responsibility and I screwed up!"

Jack takes a deep breath, holding it for a moment before saying, "Mackenzie give her a shot of something…a drug…before she uh…" and he wiggles the fingers of his right hand in front of his face, "talked to you." He shrugs his shoulders a bit as he continues, "…Fraiser thinks it probably impaired her ability to make rational decisions…so I don't think anything you could have told her would've made a difference in how it played out. You can't start second guessing yourself here."

Feeling Daniel stare at him, he scratches his chin with one hand and effectively changes the subject again by asking, "So, about that guy…" A sudden flash and darkness surrounds him.

Jack finds himself standing in a dark Corridor that seems to go on endlessly. He turns around, startled as he calls out, "Daniel?"

In the distance he hears a familiar voice, "Jack...?" and almost in the same breath, he finds Daniel standing before him.

Jack blinks, asking in surprise, "Weren't we just...?"

Daniel blinks, finishing Jack's question, "Talking?"

Jack asks, "In the infirmary, right?"

Daniel nods slightly, looking around, "Yeah..."

Jack takes a step back, reaching out to touch one of the walls on his left. "Ok...this is weird. Wonder which one of us is hallucinating?"

Daniel follows suit, feeling along one of the walls, "Not me"

Jack says, "Of course it's you. You're the one in the infirmary all drugged up, remember?"

Daniel frowns, saying, "Am not. I mean, I'm not drugged up."

"Are too."

"Am not." Daniel places both hands flat against one of the walls, palms feeling oddly cool as he asks, "This feel solid to you too?"

Feeling solid walls beneath his hands as well, Jack relents, "Ok. So not a hallucination. What just happened then? He walks around, still feeling at the walls. "Asgard maybe?"

"Uh..." Daniel looks down at himself, both hands moving to his abdomen, belatedly realizing he's feeling no pain.

Watching him, Jack observes, "Looks like they fixed you up."

"Yeah..." Daniel makes a face, idly touching his stomach, as if to make sure. He looks around, taking a moment before saying, "Wait a minute…I know this place."

"Oh?"

"Yeah...I was here with Jess, before...it felt different though." He voice trails as he cocks his head, looking down one end of the corridor. Holding a hand up, fingers raised, he asks, "Did you hear that?" In the distance, they can hear the faint sound of someone crying. Daniel takes off in a run in that direction.

Jack says, "Daniel! Wait! God, I hate it when you do that!" and he follows after.

Running towards the sound, the corridor seems to open up and they stumble into a bright room. It takes a moment for their eyes to adjust as they take in the view; Light from partially shaded windows, set high in the walls, flooding into the room, illuminating the area.

**_A door opens and a man walks in, dragging a small girl by the hand behind him. She struggles to break free, kicking with her legs and finally sinking teeth into the hand that is holding her. The man yanks her, slapping her on the side of the face and she lets go with a cry. Behind them walk in another two men, holding a struggling man between them. _**

Daniel is startled to see himself as the struggling man; glasses gone from his face; his hair, longer than he wears it now, hanging down over his forehead.

Jack shouts, "Hey!" and makes a run at the one manhandling the child and is stunned as he passes right through them. Catching himself as he stumbles, he whirls, eyes wide open as the insubstantial group continues as if nothing has changed. Looking at Daniel, his voice sounding murderous, he demands, "What the hell is going on?"

Making a move as if adjusting the glasses on his face, Daniel watches, fascinated until his eyes widen, recognizing what it is he is seeing. "I…I…oh, God…that's Jess."

_**Still struggling, Daniel shouts, "Don't! Don't you hurt her!"**_

**_A man walks in behind them and asks, "Or you'll what, Dr. Jackson?" _**

Jack looks over at Daniel for a moment, before turning to look at the newcomer, recognizing the man as unmistakably one Major Paul Tate.

**_Tate continues as he surveys the room, "General O'Neill has a lot to learn about disregarding my associates' requests. But don't worry. She'll be fine..." he walks over to the girl, reaching out to stroke her hair. Looking down at her, he smiles gently, taking her chin in his hand and lightly traces the red mark left behind by the slap, saying, "It's okay, sweetheart, you don't need to cry. We've got something very important for you to do. You're going to be daddy's special delivery girl." He kneels next to her, pointing at Daniel, "I need you to watch your uncle Daniel very carefully sweetie, so you can remember to tell your dad everything that happens today. Can you do that?"_**

**_Sniffling, she looks at her Uncle Daniel, then back over to Tate. Wiping her nose with the back of her free hand, she nods slowly as her eyes go back to her Uncle._**

Daniel turns away, looking sick. "You may not want to watch this Jack..."

But Jack can't take his eyes off the girl and the scene unfolding before him..

_**Tate straightens and beckons to a man standing to one side. "Do it. Make it painfully obvious to the General that the only reason this happened was because he wouldn't cooperate."**_

**_The man nods, pulling out a knife. Realization dawns on Daniel as he looks at the man with the knife, then at Jess, and he tries to be very calm about it, "Jess...you need to close your eyes right now. Please sweetheart, close your eyes right now." Daniel struggles to get free again, as he looks at Tate, begging, "Tate…Paul…Please...don't do this. Don't make her watch this...". _**

**_Tate chuckles softly, reaching again to stroke Jess' hair, "Ah, but Dr. Jackson...a lesson needs to be learned. And there's nothing better than a visual aide to drive that lesson home." He gestures to the man holding the knife._**

_**The knife goes in slowly as Daniel bites down, swallowing a scream. Panting, he keeps his eyes forward, staring beyond the man who is killing him. Jess stands in the grip of another man, watching as blood appears on her uncle's clothes but says nothing as she stares. **_

_**The knife goes in deep until the hilt meets the resistance his flesh offers, stopping forward motion…so now the blade begins to twist and a slow moan escapes Daniel's lips as his knees start to buckle. The man with the knife smiles grimly as he works the blade, not stopping until, along with the blood, he draws screams from Daniel.**_

Jack scowls darkly, not able to turn away, "Christ..."

**_Satisfied, the man pulls out the knife and the two holding Daniel let him collapse to the ground. Tate nods, starting to walk out of the room. Dropping the knife, the man removes his gloves and overcoat, letting them drop to the floor as he follows Tate and the others out. The man holding Jess lets her go with a slight shove and he walks out. The door closes with a click; the sound of a lock being slid into place._**

**_On the floor, Daniel has curled himself in a ball, hands pressed tightly at the wound in his belly. Eyes only on her uncle, Jess scrambles towards him, kneeling beside him. He takes a deep, shuddering breath and is terribly still… _**

The room goes dark and they are back in the corridor.

Jack exclaims, "Son of a bitch!" as he pounds his fist into the nearest wall, "What the hell did we need to see that for?"

Daniel swallows hard, taking a deep breath as he tries to compose himself, "I don't know…Shifu…Shifu says dreams teach. Maybe it's him, trying to teach us something."

"Well, the only thing I've learned today is that I want to beat the crap out of Tate!"

Stunned, Daniel turns to Jack and asks, "That isn't…is that the same Major Tate?"

Jack replies angrily, "Oh yeah. That's the rat bastard we left her with at Peterson."

Daniel's stomach turns as he remembers Jess' words in the van…days ago…was it only days ago? She was a special delivery…always a special delivery…Tate said that to her…in this reality too. Placing a hand over his mouth, Daniel takes a deep breath, holding it for a moment before releasing it, "God…".

His eyes flicker over to Jack, and seeing the dangerous expression on his face, Daniel moves to stand in front of him, trying to reassure him by saying, "Ok, but listen, it wasn't him. You can't blame the Tate in our reality for this."

Scowling at Daniel, Jack roars, "I'm mad enough right now that I don't care! I…" Caught in mid tirade, Jack straightens suddenly, as movement catches the corner of his eye. Walking past Daniel, he finds Jess kneeling on the floor with her head bowed low.

Jack kneels down in front of her, barely noticing his friend has followed and now stands behind him. A hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach begins to form as he reaches out with both hands to check her over for injuries. He says nothing, not trusting himself to speak as his hands go up both her arms and around her torso. Finding her whole in body, his allows himself a bit of relief as he reaches out with a slightly trembling hand and lifts her chin, "You all right?"

She shrugs slightly, not meeting Jacks eyes even though her face is tilted up to look at him. Voice barely above a whisper, she says, "I don't want to be here." Jack rests his free hand on her shoulder, looking up at Daniel as if seeking answers.

Daniel blinks, thinking quickly, "Jess…this is the place where you brought me before, isn't it?" She makes no motion to answer him so he continues, "You said…you said it was safe here."

At this, she finally responds with a slight nod and a quiet, "Yes..."

Daniel tells her as he watches Jack stand, "I…Jess, I think Shifu is doing this. I think he's trying to help you."

In one smooth motion, she lifts herself to her feet and whirls to face Daniel, eyes wild as the words explode from her, incredulous, "Help me? How? By bringing me here!"

Surprised, Daniel takes a half step back, saying quickly, "You told me nobody could hurt you here. He must know that!"

She stares at him for a moment, repeating his words carefully, "Nobody can hurt me here?" And then laughs bitterly, asking, "God, how could you be so stupid! There's plenty of pain to go around, Daniel. Want some?" And with that, she launches herself at him, arms outstretched and hands formed into fists.

Reacting quickly from behind her, Jack grabs hold of her wrists and pulls her towards him, restraining her. She twists in his grasp, choking back a scream as light filters into the corridor and the dark walls around them change….

**_A door opens and a man walks in, dragging a small girl by the hand behind him. She struggles to break free…_**

And as that single moment from Jess' memory begins to play out again, she sags in his arms as her legs give out. Holding her tightly, Jack helps keep her on her feet, surprised and unsure of what to do, he looks helplessly at Daniel.

Fighting back a sob, she cries, "Why is this happening? I keep coming back to this!" She turns her face into Jack's chest and he reaches up a hand, resting it on her head, and turns slightly, using his body to block her view, protecting her from this the only way he can. He asks softly, "Daniel?"

Daniel exchanges a helpless glance with Jack and chews on his lower lip, thinking out loud, "There must be something, something about what happened that day you're supposed to remember. Maybe that's why we're here…to help you remember." He buries his own feelings as an errant memory of a time, years ago when he too was forced to repeatedly watch a horrifying event from his past surfaces.

Jess lifts her head, turning to stare at Daniel and says, voice filled with disbelief, "You think…you think I should remember this?" She then looks up at Jack, tilting her head up slightly as she tells him, "Mackenzie kept asking me…He wanted me to remember. Is that why I'm here?" Horror fills her eyes and she begins breathe quickly, panicking, "He gave me those drugs and, and…I told you, I TOLD you I couldn't come back from that. I TOLD YOU! Is that what this is?"

Frowning, Jack says, "Stop it! It's not the drugs. Don't you remember what happened?" but he doesn't let her answer, telling her in a voice filled with anger, "You touched that damned Panda Box thing and it's killing you!"

Jess holds her breath as she stares up at Jack, snapping out of her panic as she listens to his words before saying hesitantly, "I…no…Mackenzie did something to me. I…I remember…the box…the Pandora's box…Daniel helped me remember…"

Jack nods, brushing the hair back from her face and resting a hand lightly on her cheek, as he tries to contain his own anger, "Yeah, he did. Then you decided to play the hero and it all went to hell right after." He closes his eyes and shakes his head as he finishes saying those words.

Drawn to the sound of her Uncle's cries, Jess turns her head, breaking away from Jack's grasp and stares at the child as she scrambles to her Uncles side. Jess frowns and shakes her head, whispering, "No…no, that's not how it happened." Taking a step back as she watches her Uncle take his last breath, she turns and takes off at a run.

Caught by surprise, Jack calls out, "Hey! Stop!" And he runs after her.

Daniel moves to follow but hesitates as he notices the memory doesn't stop playing as it did before. Instead it continues and once again he finds himself staring at his alternate but something is happening…something different…and Daniel watches, mesmerized.

**_The child that was Jess reaches out a small hand, resting it on his forehead even as her other hand moves towards his bloody stomach. Daniel shifts, freeing one bloodied hand and reaches out to push hers away, saying through clenched teeth, "No Jess. You can't."_**

**_Tears in her eyes and one tiny hand remaining on his brow, she says bravely, "They hurt you...I'll make it better."_**

**_Daniel tells her in a strangled voice, "No sweetheart, it's too big for you to fix." He pauses, panting as if trying to fight back the pain, before he can continue, "You'll only hurt yourself too."_**

**_Jess looks at him, a stubborn tilt to her head as she reaches out her small hand again towards his stomach. Too weak to move her hand away again, Daniel curls within himself moving his head so she breaks contact with his forehead, "No, Jessie. Please...promise me you won't. Just...just wait for your daddy to come, ok?" Voice fading, Daniel asks one last time, "Promise me?"_**

**_Sitting back on her legs, she lets her hands drop into her lap. Tears falling now, she answers softly, "I…I promise..." and watches as he takes a deep, shuddering breath and is terribly still…_**

The room goes dark and Daniel finds himself standing back in the corridor. Hope flares in his chest as he takes a deep breath and runs towards the sound of arguing voices in the distance.

**Elsewhere**

Jess stands with her forehead resting against the wall, palms flat against the wall, fingers spread out. She shakes her head and her right hand forms a fist, and she punches into the wall as she listens to Jack and fights back tears.

Scowling, Jack tells her, "You can't keep running away. I am not going to stand here and watch you die!"

Turning, she rests her back against the wall now, but does not meet his gaze, "I stood there and watched him die, what difference does it make!"

Jack runs both hands through his hair, exasperated, "Don't give me that load of bullshit! You're trying to take the easy way out again!"

Crossing both arms tightly across her chest, she says harshly, "It's not like I have a choice!"

Jack begins to pace in front of her, gesturing wildly with his hands, almost as if he's ready to start hitting something or someone, "Like hell you don't! You need to fight this thing, goddamnit! You will NOT surrender to this!"

From behind them, Jack hears Daniel call out, "Jack! Wait, I think I understand what's going on…"

Turning to face him, he watches as Daniel takes a deep breath and blurts out, "She can heal…"

Daniel briefly rests a hand on Jack's shoulder, offering him a small but reassuring smile before moving towards her and saying, "Jess, you tried to heal your uncle but he wouldn't let you. He said it would hurt you if you tried."

Jess shakes her head, eyes half-closed as she insists, "No...you're wrong. It didn't happen that way. He died."

Walking right up to her, Daniel is adamant, "I saw you try to heal him…I saw that memory!"

Jack turns to look at Daniel, an incredulous expression on his face, "What're you saying Daniel?"

"I'm saying that she's like Ayiana, the ancient you found frozen in the Antarctic, remember...?" Looking over his shoulder at Jack, he adds quickly, "She should be able to heal herself."

The word escapes as barely a whisper from her lips, "Mother?" and she frowns, confused as she takes a step backwards, pressing herself flat against the wall and stares down at her hands.

Jack suddenly reaches out and grabs hold of both her arms. Pulling her towards him, he shakes her once, demanding, "You mean to tell me you can fix this? What the hell are you waiting for?"

She looks up into his face, her eyes wide as she shakes her head, looking lost, "No…I can't…no…I promised!"

Daniel tilts his head, unsure at Jess' hesitation until her words make him understand. Very carefully, Daniel says, "Jess…your uncle never meant for you to stop using your gift. Please…"

She pushes away from Jack and screams, "It hurts!"

Inches from her face, Jack screams right back, "Then fix it!"

Her back against the wall, she all but stands on her toes, glaring at Jack as she shouts, "I CAN'T!"

Jack watches her, seeing the confusion and pain playing across the features of her young face, his own eyes searching hers, his hands once again grabbing hold of her arms. In the span of three heartbeats, he makes a decision, ignoring Daniel's hand on his shoulder. Pulling her up to him, he leans over her and whispers in her ear, "So, you're just going to let Tate win?"

Jack can feel her body start to tremble beneath his hands. She shoves him away, hard, and the words are torn from her throat, "FUCK YOU!"

Light filters into the corridor and the scene around them changes…

**_A door opens and a man walks in, dragging a small girl by the hand behind him. She struggles to break free…_**

Jack sets his jaw, then turns, grabbing Daniel by the arm and dragging him along, "C'mon Daniel. We're done here."

Daniel is shocked and tries to pull away, "What! No! We need to help her!"

Jack gestures at the scene around them, asking, "You know why she keeps coming back to this?" Not waiting for an answer, he continues,"She never left." He shakes his head, tugging on Daniel's arm again, "Maybe if she watches enough times, she'll remember why her uncle died."

Disbelief thick in his voice, Daniel asks, "How can you say that? Jack!"

**Back in the infirmary**

Daniel calls out, "Jack!"

Blinking, Jack finds himself back in the chair he was sitting, hearing the heart monitor beeping a bit faster than before, "Daniel?"

"God Jack, what did you do?" Daniel lifts his head to look at his friend.

Meeting his gaze, Jack says quietly, "That Shifu kid...he didn't teach as much as remind me of something. We O'Neill's can be very stubborn. She needed to be pushed…so I pushed."

Daniel blinks a few times, trying to come to terms with being back in his body, wincing at pain he had the brief opportunity to forget. He moves to sit up even as Jack stands, realization dawning for both of them as they wonder if the push worked. He grimaces, waving Jack off, "Go, go, go!"

Jack hauls ass out of the infirmary.

**To be continued - Feedback is adored!**

**_Thank you all for your kind reviews! If you didn't already hate Tate, I suspect you'll despise him by now.He's so good to hate. Grrr!_ :)**


	16. Fullfilled

_**Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.**_

**ISO RM 4**

Down the hall, Jack can see the doors are open to ISO RM 4 and there is constant movement in and out by Doctor Fraiser's staff. He pauses at the door, watching as the Doctor and several nurses surround the bed and it takes him a few moments to realize they are trying to hold down a struggling patient. He hears Fraiser barking out orders, asking for restraints to be brought in.

Letting go of the breath he didn't realize he was holding, Jack calls out over the din, "Doc! What's happening?"

Fraiser holds down Jess' head, trying to keep her still, "Jess, stop struggling! You're going to hurt yourself!", then calls out to another nurse, "Get me that sedative!" The nurse promptly hands her the prepared syringe and moves to assist holding Jess down.

Jack hurriedly approaches the bed, saying, "No! No…doc, don't. Wait." Taking hold of one of Jess' arms, he orders, "Cut it out!" Jess' eyes snap towards him and she stops flailing her limbs, though gagging at the breathing tube still down her throat. Maintaining eye contact with the girl, Jack quickly starts to tug at the bandages covering her arms.

Fraiser holds the injection ready, the tip placed at the intake port on the IV even as she looks at him with suspicion, "With all due respect Sir…what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Heart in his throat, he swallows hard, forcing his anxiety back down as he tells his fingers to work quickly, offering up a silent prayer that the blaze he sees in her eyes isn't merely the last spark of her life. Finished with the bandages, he feels a heady relief flow through him and only now is he able to turn his gaze away, lifting up Jess' bare arm almost triumphantly to show Fraiser, "Look!"

Fraiser eyes open wide as she see healthy skin where it was blistered with burns a few hours ago. She whispers, "My God!" and quickly moves to check under the rest of her bandages.

Still holding Jess' hand, he reaches another to her forehead, brushing back her hair and asks, "Ready to blow this joint?"

Jess' eyes flash with anger and he smiles softly, "You did good, kiddo." He turns to Fraiser, saying, "I don't think she needs all this stuff anymore."

Fraiser hesitates only a moment before nodding, and begins to disconnect Jess from the life support equipment.

**A short while later - Infirmary**

Daniel is arguing with two nurses, insisting he can stand.

Jack calls out, looking inordinately proud of himself, "Hey! You want to calm down there, fella? You got company."

Daniel stops protesting as he looks over, seeing Jack and walking next to him, Jess, her face a thundercloud and he can't help a grin, "She did it! You did it!"

Jess looks him over, scowling and moves ahead of Jack, approaching Daniel's bedside and stops. Not understanding her demeanor, he blinks a few times and his smile fades. Looking at her he asks, "Ah…Jess. Are you all right?"

She doesn't answer and only stares at him. Jack stands behind her, placing a hand at her back and says, "Um…she's a little grumpy, I think. But Fraiser says she checked out good as new!"

Ignoring them, she tells Daniel, "You looked better in my dream."

"Ah…well…I felt better there too." He winces as he leans back in his bed.

Jess reaches out a hand, brushing his cheek lightly over a darkening bruise. "You hurt?"

Daniel smiles, trying to be nonchalant about it, "It's not so bad."

Letting her hand drop to her side, she cocks her head and says, "You're a terrible liar."

Having been caught in the lie, Daniel tries to reassure her, saying "It's ok though." He shifts in the bed again as he tries to get more comfortable and winces at the movement.

In her minds eye, she forces away the image of her uncle as stares at Daniel. Her eyes absorb every detail, taking in his injuries; the cuts and bruises on his face and the pain he can't conceal from her. The nerves on the fingers that lightly touched his bruised cheek scream at her even as she processes that the pain she feels in them is not her own. With this understanding, her own pain and anger drain from her as her eyes fill with tears.

Raising her hand, she brushes the hair from his forehead; a tender gesture she extends from the man standing behind her, supporting her. She reaches her other hand and places it over Daniel's belly.

A bit alarmed, Daniel tries to push her hand away, saying, "Wha..? Jess…don't. I'm ok, really."

"No Daniel. No more promises. Be quiet and let me do this." She stares at him with soft brown eyes that speak of a desperate need.

Looking past her shoulder, he locks gazes with Jack who tilts his head slightly, approving. Daniel looks back at Jess, swallows hard and nods once. He looks down at the hand resting lightly over his belly, surprised as he feels sudden warmth spreading, radiating outwards. He leans his head back into his pillow, his breath catching in his throat as the pain fades, becoming barely a ghost of a memory.

_**To be continued…**_

_**I'm almost done! We're in the home stretch now! – As ever, Feedback is adored!**_


	17. Endings

_**Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.**_

**Later that same day - ISO RM 4**

Jess is sitting at the small table in her room, head lowered as she stares at her hands. Teal'c sits across from her, speaking to her in quiet tones. They both look up as the door opens, Teal'c straightening, as Jack and Sam enter the room.

Jack carries a tray filled with food and Sam carries her laptop and some files cradled in her arms.

Jess watches as they settle the items they carry on the table before her and asks simply, "Daniel?"

"I get the feeling Fraiser doesn't quite believe that he's all better, so she's running a few tests. She said she'd spring him in a little while. And here's the food she promised." Jack points to the tray as he moves to grab an extra chair to sit on. "Eat up."

Reaching for the food, she says, "Thanks. I'm starved." Looking over at Teal'c, she offers him her pickle. He tilts his head, declining.

Sam smiles as she sets up her laptop, watching as Jess takes a huge bite of a hamburger, "Dr. Fraiser thinks your hunger is your body's way of getting back all the energy you expended healing yourself and Daniel. How're you feeling?"

Jess quirks a brow, "Numb…like I've got nothing else left to give." She shrugs then and takes a bite of her burger.

Jack nods, saying, "I'm sorry about that kiddo. It'll get better." He glances over at Sam and nods, asking, "Jess…um, there is a question we do need to ask you."

Jess' shoulders slump a bit at the question even as she looks up at him, swallowing and then asks, "What?"

Clearing his throat, Jack takes a few greasy fries from her plate, and asks, "Ok…It's about the Stargate."

A mumbled "What about it?" escapes her lips as she chews.

Wiping his hands on a napkin, Jack asks, "When you threw that panda box thing into it, Carter tells me the computer wasn't finished dialing."

Jess pauses before starting to chew again and says, "Oh…Well…I don't know anything about that…"

Stealing a few more fries, he says, "Carter, tell her what you were able to find out."

Sam taps some of the keys on the laptop as she says, "We were able to determine that the Stargate established a successful outgoing wormhole without the aid of the dialing computer. As a matter of fact, based on diagnostics I ran right after it happened, the gate didn't even lock on the planet I had started the dialing sequence for."

Jess stares down at her plate, idly stuffing fries into her mouth and mumbles, "Yeah, so?"

Sam asks, "Well, remember that video I showed you from when you first came here? And we could see that alien being, Shifu?"

Jess nods slowly, concentrating on her food.

Sam turns the screen, showing the video capture of the event, "Well, as you can see on this analysis of the security tape, there is no sign of any ascended being in the gate room."

"Ok…?" Jess glances at the screen before turning her attention back to the remnants of her food.

Frowning slightly, Jack breaks in with, "Jess…is there anything you should be telling us?"

She looks up at Jack, not able to meet his gaze for long before turning away, answering, "No."

Teal'c speaks up, "Jessmin O'Neill, there is no need to hide the truth from us."

She frowns, looking at Teal'c, then back at Jack. Taking a deep breath, she says steadily, "Well…you know…I guess you can say it's another perk to not being completely human."

"So…what? You dialed the gate?" Jack asks, quirking a brow.

Jess nods slowly, stuffing some more fries in her mouth.

Sam asks, "Where did you dial to?"

Swallowing her food, she turns her gaze towards Teal'c, and answers, "Chulak."

Jack quickly gets up out of his seat, "What?"

Sam's eyes go wide as she exclaims, "Oh my God, Jess! There are people there!"

Flinching, Jess answers quickly, "I shut the gate down before it got to the other side."

Jack asks, "You can just turn it off whenever you want?"

Pushing the tray away from her, she nods, "Yeah…"

Sam asks, "Why Chulak? Wasn't that a bit dangerous?"

Playing with a corner of her napkin, she answers, "I don't know that many gate addresses. Chulak was the first one that came to mind. I only know three…Chulak, Earth and the Alpha Site. My dad made sure of that."

Jack looks at her suspiciously for a moment, saying, "Wait a minute…when you first got here, you gave us the address of the Nox homeworld."

Jess blinks, surprised at the question, "Huh?" and it takes her a moment to understand Jack's statement, "Oh! Well, yeah, I know the manual addresses of several Stargates. I thought you meant which addresses I could, y'know." And she waggles the fingers of one hand around.

"Oh…there's a difference?" Jack sits back and watches her.

Jess nods several times, staring down at her tray and chokes back a laugh, saying, "Oh yeah."

"How do you do it?" Jack asks.

Tapping now on the edge of the tray with a fork, she answers, "It's complicated."

"Explain it to Carter. She'll understand." Sam's eyes open slightly wide at that.

**Hallway**

Stepping out of his office, Daniel finishes rolling down his sleeve, wincing slightly as he pulls the fabric over the bandage on his arm. Damned if Janet wasn't determined to stick him with more holes now than he had to start with before Jess healed him. Shaking his head, he turns at the next corridor, picking up the pace a bit as he tries to make it to the elevator. Just in time, he squeezes into the open door, swipes his security card and presses the floor number. He looks up and offers a smile to the other occupant in the elevator.

Daniel is startled at seeing the face of his murderer…his alternates' murderer standing so close to him.

Major Tate stares at Daniel for a moment, surprise clearly on his face, "Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel leans his back against the wall of the elevator, crossing his arms over his chest as he nods, "Yes. That's me."

Wearing a slight scowl, Tate offers, "I…I'm Major Tate. I don't believe we've been properly introduced" and he extends a hand.

Daniel stares a moment before he straightens, quickly taking the offered hand and shaking it, "Oh…well…yes. Ah…"

Tate pumps the hand, continuing, voice sounding strained, "I have to be completely honest with you…I'm rather surprised to see you up and about. Last I heard, someone had taken a stick to you."

Daniel releases the grip, returning his hand back to the safety of his body and resists the urge to wipe it on the side of his pants. He says, "Well…rumors fly no matter how hard you try. I'm fine, really."

Tate blinks, nodding as he says, "Well, I'm glad to hear that." He steps forward, placing a hand on Daniel's shoulder, saying, "It's really good to see you well."

Daniel smiles, trying to contain his nervousness as he convinces himself he feels this way only because of what he saw the alternate Tate do, "Uh…thanks." Remembering Sam had said about Tate threatening to take Jess away, he asks, "What brings you to the SGC?"

Tate offers a sickly smile, saying, "No need to worry Dr. Jackson. Considering Ms. O'Neill's terminal condition, it isn't reasonable for us to focus our efforts on her safety. I've been informed that she won't last the night."

Daniel blinks, not missing a beat as he says, "Yes…too bad about that. Very tragic…."

Tate nods, adding, "I'm actually on my way now to see the gentleman accused in your abduction and…apparent assault. I've been assigned to investigate the matter."

Daniel swallows hard, suddenly grateful that the elevator has stopped, doors opening. He says, "Oh, really? Well…send him my best." And he steps out.

Daniel makes his way to ISO RM 4, trying to shake the creepy feeling of Tate's hand on his shoulder. He walks in, seeing Jack, Sam, Teal'c and Jess seated at the small table. Jess glances up, looking tired but smiling as she sees him.

Daniel returns the smile, moving to walk up to the group, saying, "You'll never guess who I ran into just now."

"Who?" asks Sam.

Daniel answers, "Ah…uh…" he looks down at Jess before saying, "Our special friend…the one causing all that trouble lately." Looking at Jack, he continues slowly, "And for a guy I've never actually met before, he seemed very interested in my well being."

Jess stares down at the table, letting her hair fall into her eyes. Softly she says, "I'm not stupid…I know it's Tate you're talking about."

Jack frowns at Daniel, asking. "Did he say anything?"

Daniel places a reassuring hand on Jess' shoulder, saying, "Uh…he mentioned he was on his way to talk to Mr. Smith."

"Huh…" Jack stands, glancing at Sam and says, "Carter, don't forget to let the lab rat here up for air in a bit, ok? I got something to take care of. T?" Teal'c stands to follow Jack out of the room.

As they leave, Jess calls out, "Jack?"

He pauses at the door and turns to look at her, "Yeah?"

She stares at him for a moment before saying, "He died because a son of a bitch killed him."

Jack meets her gaze steadily for a few seconds, then turns and walks out.

Daniel raises a brow at the exchange, taking the seat vacated by Jack, and reaches out to hold Jess' hand. He tries to reassure her by saying, "It'll be ok."

Jess sighs as she answers, "'course it will. It can't get any worse." She shrugs her shoulders as she rests her chin on her hands, placing her elbows on the table.

Daniel coughs, blinking a few times before turning to Sam and asks, "What's this about a lab rat?'

It takes Sam a moment to focus on his question, and then she all but beams, "She's like a portable DHD, Daniel."

Looking between Jess and Sam, Daniel asks, voice incredulous, "What?"

**Lockup**

The door opens and Tate steps into the small room, staring at the prisoner as he sits in a chair, arms drawn up to the table, pillowing his head. Turning to one of the airmen, he says, "I can handle it from here." And waits until the door is closed.

Roger Smith looks up, raises a brow but says nothing as Tate sits down in the chair opposite. Straightening, he waits for Tate to begin.

Tate leans into the table, fire in his eyes as he hisses, "What the hell are you playing at? I told you that a lesson had to be learned!"

Smith moves his gaze swiftly to the door, then back at Tate before he too leans forward, asking, "What're you talking about?"

Scowling at the man sitting before him, Tate says, "Don't play games with me. The people I work for…the people we work for can just as easily make you dead prisoner."

Smith rubs at his jaw, saying, "I haven't forgotten. But I still don't know what you're talking about. We gave Jackson the full treatment, just like you wanted. There's no way in hell that guy is going to forget what we did." He chuckles, "If he's even still alive."

Clenching his fist, Tate hisses, "Bullshit! I just saw him not 20 minutes ago walking down the hallway, not a mark on him."

Smith stares at him, tilting his head then shaking it, "He was crawling around in his own filth the last time I saw him. There's no way that guy is doing anything more than keeping company with a bedpan right now."

Both men jump, startled as the door behind them bursts open. Tate stands quickly as he watches O'Neill come in, anger showing clearly on his face. Smith quickly stands, making his way to the back of the room and watches.

O'Neill shouts "Tate!" and grabs him by the neck, slamming him up against the table, "Who do you work for?"

Raising a hand to fend off O'Neill's hold on him, Tate says quickly, "I work for the same people you do, Colonel. The United States Air force! Let me go before I have you brought up on assault charges!"

O'Neill's grip is as steady as his voice as he says, "You really think we're that stupid? We got the entire conversation on tape."

Teal'c appears In the doorway behind O'Neill, a Zat'nikatel in one hand.

Eyeing Teal'c and watching as the airmen walk down the far end of the corridor, Tate says desperately, "General Hammond would find this highly irregular, Colonel. I am just doing my job."

Jack grins viciously, "Hammond's on his way to the Pentagon, taking care of some unfinished business. You're dealing with me now."

Tate smirks, "What do you think he's going to be able to do?" He stumbles back onto the table just as O'Neill lets him go with a slight shove.

Gesturing with his hands in a forward motion, O'Neill says, "Teal'c."

Nodding, Teal'c activates the Zat and points it at Tate

Still half sitting on the table, Tate's eyes go wide, and he asks quickly, "What're you doing?"

Teal'c says simply, "I am going to kill you."

"What? You can't do that!"

O'Neill looks at Smith, who has been doing his best to melt into the wall behind him. "You want to talk now?"

Smith starts to babble, "I work for him. I'm just following his orders. I don't know who he works for, honest. He told us to find out what we could from Jackson and to, to, to make sure he wouldn't forget who called the shots. He wanted to make sure you would get the message."

As Smith talks, Tate stands taller, straightening his tie as he rubs at his throat, "O'Neill, I know you're bluffing. You won't risk your career for this." His words end in a scream as Teal'c shoots and he slides to the floor.

O'Neill picks him up, forcing him to sit in one of the chairs and shakes him, trying to get him back to consciousness. Twitching as his body reacts to the after effects of the weapon, Tate opens his eyes and focuses on O'Neill even as he feels himself pulled to his feet.

O'Neill says quietly, "First shot stuns. Second shot kills. Talk."

Tate shakes his head, trying to clear it, gasping, even as he manages to say, "I should've had Jackson killed. A double funeral for him and the kid would've been perfect."

Disgusted, O'Neill draws a fist back and punches him in the face, letting him go crashing onto the table, "Airmen!" he calls out. As they arrive, he says, "Put him in lockup." And as the airmen bend down to grab Tate, O'Neill shakes his head, saying, "Get him out of my sight!"

**_To be continued…Only one more chapter to go! – As ever, Feedback is adored!_**


	18. A Begining

_**Stargate & SG-1 belong to lots of other people and entities. Jess was my idea. Thank goodness for late night visits from the Muse.**_

Note: This is it…the last chapter in this story. And the end of the day, after all is said and done, no matter how good or bad it is…life goes on…

I hope you enjoy.

**One month later - Early Morning**

Jack heads over to the VIP room assigned to Jess. He doesn't bother knocking as the door is wide open and he walks in. "Hey."

She sits at a table, quietly putting together a large puzzle and looks up at him, "Hey. You clean up nice."

He grins at her, looking down at himself and adjust the jacket of his dress blues.

He walks over to her, tilting his head slightly so he can see which puzzle she's working on. It's a scenic picture of a stormy beach, waves crashing into a pier and the sun just setting in the distance. He asks, "Didn't you do this one already?"

She shrugs slightly, turning back to her puzzle and fits another piece in, "Yeah…but I like this one. The doctor says it's therapeutic."

"Right…but you sure he didn't mean maybe putting together new ones?" He asks as he makes his way to sit on the edge of her bed and leans over to pick up the little brown bear that sits on her pillow.

She ignores the question, picking through the pile of loose puzzle pieces. He gives the bear a once over, he starts to play catch with it. "Well, ok then. Uh, I came by to let you know that I'm off to, you know, do that thing, in about an hour."

She nods, not looking up at him and says, "Ok."

Jack tosses the bear back onto the bed as he stands, ready to head out. Pausing at the door he asks, "Jess…I was just wondering…" he clears his throat and asks again, "I want to know what you…"

Holding the next puzzle piece between her thumb and forefinger, Jess doesn't look up at him as she cuts him off, saying softly, "Jack, don't. I can't have what I want, so please don't ask."

Jack nods, rubbing under his chin as he watches her work the puzzle. Her words remind him of the last ditch effort of contacting the Asgard to see if they could find her a way home. Impossible, they said…there is no way to assure which universe to send her back to and even less likely to send her to the correct time. _Ok O'Neill, you know that's not an option. She's here now and all you've got to do is this one last thing that'll pretty much guarantee her safety. You owe me, O'Neill. __Oh? To hell I do! I don't even know you_…Jack shakes his head slightly as he has this argument with his imaginary other self. He looks at the girl sitting across from him, her words echoing in his ears and he knows what he has to do. "Alright then. So we do this my way. No complaints, ok?"

She nods, finding another piece and says, "No sir. No complaints." As he turns to leave the room, she mutters under her breath, "Just a few objections, probably." and she gives up on the puzzle, staring at the door.

**Later that afternoon**

Hammond looks up as someone knocks on his door. He sees Jack holding a manila envelope in his hands.

"Come in, Colonel. How did it go?

"As we expected Sir." He gestures to the envelope in his hands as he steps inside the office. "It's all been signed, sealed and it's just waiting for delivery."

Hammond smiles and stands, extending his hand, "I suppose congratulations are in order."

Jack looks a bit bemused as he shakes the offered hand, "Thank you sir. It's kind of weird."

"Having second thoughts?"

"No…no, sir. It's just…I never thought I'd be playing this role again."

"Well, it is an unusual case. I'd wager you've set precedent."

Jack smiles, "I suppose so. I feel I owe it to the other me."

"I understand son. Have you told her the news yet?"

"No…I wanted to see you first. I have a request. I was hoping to take a few days off. Y'know…to get things settled."

"Take a week Jack. Do what you have to."

Jack nods, "Thank you sir."

**Short time later**

Jack heads to Daniel's office, hoping to talk to him before seeing Jess. As he approaches the office, he can hear voices and knows the girl is there. Pausing right before the door, he quickly rehearses his speech and grins, thinking of the reaction he'll get. He walks in and states, "Well, it's official, you're now an O'Neill."

Sure enough, Jess rolls her eyes at that but offers him a smile as she asks, "So I'm legal? No longer an unclassified entity? A card carrying member of Clan O'Neill?"

Jack nods as he hands her the manila envelope. She opens it and dumps the contents on Daniel's desk.

Daniel smiles at Jack, "Congratulations. Shouldn't you be passing out cigars with little pink bands on them?"

"Thanks and uh…maybe later." He looks at Jess, who has gone quiet as she looks over the paperwork. He asks, "Well?"

Pouring through the contents, she asks, "What…you couldn't get me a drivers license?" She sighs, looking at the birth certificate, "Y'know, would it have been so hard to make me eighteen, seeing as you're already forging these records?"

Daniel counters, "If you want to get technical about it, we could have kept your birth year and made you three."

Jess blinks. She looks between the two of them before she sticks her tongue out at Daniel.

Sam comes in and asks, "Hi guys. You're back early, Sir. I take it everything went well?"

Jess grins at her and then drawls out an answer before Jack can, "Yeah-huh. I am officially the result of a youthful indiscretion of one Colonel Jonathan O'Neill."

Sam says, "Uh…so that's the, official story you settled on?"

Jack shrugs, "It's a simple enough to remember."

Sam smiles as she moves over to Jess, "So Jess, have you decided which school you're going to yet?"

Jack winces slightly as Sam breaks this news.

Jess eyes Sam, "School?"

Daniel offers, "Yeah, as in high school."

Jess snorts and says in disbelief, "I'm not going to high school."

Jack tries to mollify her, "You tell 'em Jess."

Daniel chastises, "Jack! You aren't helping."

Jack frowns, nodding, "Yeah, he's right. If you don't go, I'll end up in jail or something. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to keep you out of school. I think."

Daniel and Sam glare at him and Jack offers them a helpless shrug.

"Jack, I thought we agreed I'd stick to doing my school work using the computer."

"Well…no. If you had been paying any attention, I said we'd make the change slow, but it's going to happen."

Sam offers, "I know it's different than what you're used to, but we all agree that…"

Jess starts to put away the various papers back into the envelope and says, slightly exasperated, "Yes, yes, I know. Acclimate, incorporate and integrate, yeah, yeah, I got it." She shoots a look at Jack and offers him a sweet smile as she says under her breath, "My therapist is going to cost you a fortune, old man."

Jack makes a face and asks, "Daniel, remind me again why this was a good idea?"

Daniel grins, "Because it's the right thing to do, Jack."

"Right." Jack straightens as he looks over at Jess and asks, "Ready to blow this popsicle stand?"

Jess stares at the envelope containing her old but new identity before she returns his gaze. She says quietly, "You know, nothing good ever came from me being out there."

Jack looks at her and says simply, "C'mon. Let's go home." He reaches out to her, puts his arm around her shoulders and walks her out.

_**Epilogue**_

The sounds of the ocean crashing along the shore surround Shifu as he watches the girl. She sits close enough to the water that the waves break around her and by her smile it seems she enjoys the feeling of it. A voice calls out her name and he watches as she reluctantly leaves the tranquility the beach offers her to rejoin the others at the house by the sea.

He goes back to sit in idle contemplation. His thoughts stray in a hundred directions as he picks through his emotions and tries to find one that makes sense. So caught up is he that he does not notice the subtle change in the air around him.

She stands next to the boy and smiles softly, certain sadness in her eyes. She reaches out and touches his head, stroking his hair and smiles as he looks up, surprised.

"Oma."

She asks in a soft voice, "What have you learned on your journey since we last saw each other?"

"I have learned…patience…how to observe…"

"Without interference?"

He does not answer but continues, "I have learned…restlessness…" and he falters.

She smiles softly as she cups his chin in her hand and tells him, "It is love that causes living beings to awaken from their sleep."

He admits sadly, "I could not let her die. I…I see myself in her." He lowers his gaze and asks, "Am I to be punished now?"

"Your love was pure in its motivation as were your actions in saving her." Oma watches as the girl makes her way once again from the house back to the ocean, letting a towel drop behind her as she steps into the water. A voice from the house admonishes a warning to not swim out too far.

"One can argue that this…" and she gestures before her, "is punishment enough. Love requires effort because it takes responsibility for all living beings, not just one. "

"It is only one I care about. Will she ever understand?"

"Will you, child?" Oma smiles sadly, stroking his hair again, "A broken mirror never reflects again; fallen flowers never go back to the old branches. Nothing is gained without seeing."

Hope flares in his chest at her words and he focuses now on this new sensation, this new feeling and he does not notice when Oma leaves.

_**-Fin?**_

**Footnote:**

**FACTS**:

**A Stargate**: Constructed a millennia ago by the Ancients, it is a massive, circular ring with an inner track of 39 symbols representing star constellations, capable of sending people and objects hundreds of thousands of light-years via an interstellar conduit.

**Ancient Technology**: Some ancient technology can be controlled by the mind of an operator, if the operator possesses a rare gene from the Ancients that allows them to use the technology.

**Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill**: The Asgard saw the potential of the human race in Jack and chose to ally themselves with Earth. Thor has even revealed that the Asgard have found the colonel to be quite unique -- the next stage in human evolution.

**Ayiana:** An unascended Ancient who was left behind on Earth when the Ancients left between five and 10 million years ago. She was the first sign that Ancients were, in fact, earlier versions of advanced humans -- the first evolution of our form of life. Samantha Carter and Janet Fraiser theorized that the Ancients may have evolved millions of years before humans; our resemblance to them also implies that they played a deliberate role in our evolution.

We know that there are an infinite number of alternate realities. (See episodes There But For The Grace Of God, Point of View)

**SUPPOSITION: **

**Ancient Technology: **What if all Ancient technology could be controlled by the mind of an operator? The Stargate opens interstellar conduits; it is therefore reasonable to assume it may have been considered safer to operate via a DHD or a handheld device, since these objects have built in safety mechanisms to avoid certain accidents (see episodes 1969 and Red Sky). If a Stargate is operated via the mind of an operator, who is to say that the interstellar conduits can't rip through dimensions given the right circumstances…or the right talent.

**Shifu: **The harcesis child. With instruction from the being known as Oma Desala, he has ascended to a higher plane of existence, where he no longer has need of a physical body. Much influenced by Daniel Jackson's example, he mimics his friends' act of selflessness and takes action for the first time by rescuing Jess O'Neill. His actions have opened the way for Jess' future. He is also a boy in love.

**Jessmin "Jess" O'Neill**; Originally from an alternate reality, she is the unlikely product of the union between Jack O'Neill & the Ancient known as Ayiana. One such as she holds the key to human evolution in her hands…her existence the link between all that was once lost to the dim past and all that could be in the future. Given the chance, she may take human evolution beyond the next step into realms unknown.

**Shifu and Jessmin: _Alone, their potential is vast. It is beyond imagination what they could accomplish together._**


End file.
